"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

The uproar from the readers of the New Yorker after the publication of Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" is certainly understandable when you take into consideration the date of it's publication, 1948. America was still recovering from a very bloody and devastating war for human rights. America was just beginning to become aware of the atrocities the Nazi's committed in their eagerness to destroy other, "lesser" peoples. "The Lottery" upsets the reader's sense of equilibrium. We …

…common one. She is ready, almost eager, to participate in the lottery and condemn one of her neighbors, but when the tables are turned and she is the condemned party she yells out an all too familiar cry, "It wasn't fair!" (271) "I think we aught to start over (272) "It isn't fair, it isn't right" (273) Too many people have lost sight of the golden rule...Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.