The Lottery

This short story started out with a happy demeanor about it. I believe that this was an interesting story and was also very upsetting. Thinking about that this was a custom for them to do, was very strange. It makes you wonder if there are and how many little places around the world that may still do stuff such as sacrifice. We know about animal sacrifice, but do we really know if there are human sacrifices going on? It really is disturbing if you truly think about it. What was also very strange is how everyone could be in agreeance with such a horrible sacrifice. I did not catch from the story how often they did this, but I am guessing that it is a yearly thing or you would think that they would run out of sacrifices and people! The part that really upsetted me was after Tessie Hutchinson already had her fate decided, "The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles" (411). To think of getting stoned to death by the town would be hard enough, but to see someone hand your little boy stones to be thrown at yourself would be more than I would be able to take. I just do not understand how people can do customs such as this. Murder is one thing, but when it is a custom to draw someone's name to sacrifice yearly is just not human at all in my mind.