The Lottery

The more I read this story, the less I liked it. It starts with an optimistic feel to it, with the children finishing school for the year, and people gathering in town and socializing, but it becomes mood continuously declines throughout the story. There is some foreshadowing to the mood decrease early on when the boys are gathering stones and when they nervously awaited while the men drew slips. "By now, all through the crowd there were men holding the small folded papers in their large hands, turning them over and over nervously”(Jackson 408). Later when it is determined what family has 'won' the lottery it becomes clear that this is not the type of lottery you want to win. The end of the story when the villagers are picking the stones up and Mrs. Hutchinson is getting hit in the head the story started to upset me. Their actions are foolish seeing as how they do it because it is a tradition and they do not even know the point to their cruel actions.