"The Lottery " by Shirley Jackson is an interesting and suspenseful story. It is set in a small town with an increasing population.
Plot Summary
When the story begins, the children of the town are gathering up stones and putting them in piles. It is almost time for Mr. Summers to begin the lottery - he conducts all civic activities including the lottery. On a certain day, the whole town gathers together for the lottery. Mr. Summers has a small box where small pieces of paper are folded and stored. The box is kept in a specific place and locked up so nobody can get into it.
When it is time for the lottery, the box is removed and taken to the place where the lottery is being held. The names of the townspeople are called one at a time to come up and take a piece of paper. When all of the people had come up and taken a folded piece of paper, everyone reads what is written on the piece they selected - but only one piece of paper had something written on it. You'll have to read the story to find out what happened and who was chosen as the winner.
Themes of the Story
The main theme in the story is about adhering to tradition. The box that was used in the story was old and getting worn out. Mr. Summers wanted to use a different box, but the people didn't want to. Some of the people had lived there since it was first started as a community. They didn't want to make any changes to thier traditions, such as using a new box for the lottery. They believed in keeping things the same. The only thing that did change was the size of the community. It was a very small town until people started moving in and settling down there.
This was a good story and well written. The author built up the suspense throughout the story. The reader does not know what is going to happen in the lottery until the end of the story.
If you are interested in reading a suspenseful story and a story about a small community, then you will enjoy "The Lottery." The community believes in keeping and following the traditions that they started when it first became a community. However, their lottery tradition will not seem like a good idea to many readers.
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