The Lottery

Dear Shirley Jackson,
I really enjoyed reading The Lottery. At first I didn't understand it, but after a second glance I read between the lines. I think it was an eye opener at the time it was written. It is amazing how cultures continue a tradition even though it is harmful to others. It reflects the time of the holocaust when Jews were being murdered by the Nazi's. Often times Jews would be turned in by their own neighbors. It would seem that the people didn't want to, yet people were afraid not to. In the story the villagers started a tradition that keeps going on every June 27Th a random person gets drawn and they are stoned to death. It doesn't matter that everybody is scared that it may happen to them. The tradition of the Lottery continues year after year for the simple fact that it is a tradition. Why do we do things to harm others simply because or ancestors did before us? Shirley I agree that the country needed an eye opener because so many people died in the holocaust and it could have stopped sooner if the people would have ended it and stood up for what is right and not what everybody else is doing. The lottery also expresses that discrimination and cruelty can happen to any person as randomly as drawing a black dot from a black box. The Jews were ordinary people living their lives and one person started to discriminate them and others followed like a flow of sheep. We need to realize that we move forward and learn from our ancestors past mistakes and do what is right not what our ancestors teach us.