Two Sides Of Humanity In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Imagine that you, out of entire village, won the lottery. You would think that it is a good thing, right? Now imagine that winning the lottery meant you are going to lose your life. Your view on the lottery probably switched from good to bad. The same thing goes for people. Sometimes a person’s view on something changes or sometimes a person is set on something simply because it is a tradition. A person can start off good-hearted and can change throughout time or vice-versa. They might stay cold-hearted and not show a sign of change. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, shows a perfect example of this. Two example are Mrs. Hutchinson and Old Man warner. The story uses characters like them to show the two sides of humanity whenever different events occur to different people. It just shows that things are not always what they seem to be.

In ‘The Lottery”, there is a tradition that every year there is a drawing that everyone in the village participates in. The head of every family must draw and one family will “win”. Which by winning, you actually get chosen to be that year’s sacrifice. Now in this story, every character acts like this is a complete normal thing to do. For example, Mrs. Hutchinson, when she first arrived at the square, where the lottery was being hosted at, she acted as if it was any other day. She was socializing with women in the village as if she was friends with all of them. She was even making jokes and making everyone laugh. When it was time for her family to draw out of the box, she said to her husband with humor, “Get up there, bill!” causing people to laugh. The moment she realized