Change Illustrated In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

In The Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson, they have a drawing every year, which they call, hence the name of the story, the lottery. The drawing only takes about two hours in their small town, but in the ones around them it can take up to two days. Everyone gathers for this, to watch the men walk up, take a slip of paper from the old wooden black box that sits on the stage, then silently wait. When their leader, of sorts, tells them to, they open up their slips. All of them but one will be blank. The person with the marked slip is chosen to participate with only their family, drawing again. In The Lottery, the man who chose the marked slip was named Bill Hutchinson. He and his family, three children and a wife, drew a slip. The family member with the marked slip would be stoned to death. Tessie, Bill’s wife, was the one with the marked slip. She begged them and told them it wasn’t fair, that it wasn’t right. They didn’t listen. Readers can learn that change can be a good thing from this story. Change can make you, the people around you, and even the environment, a better person or place.
Change can make you a better person. If you’re a bully, or you stole something from a grocery store, you can change for the better. In The Lottery, other towns were talking of giving up the …show more content…
For example, when America started out, there were only a handful of people going to live in the colonies. We eventually started streaming in, affected by the other people leaving. In The Lottery, one town stopped doing the drawing, so the other towns started letting it go as well, affected by the towns around them. And before Tessie said anything about the lottery being unfair, no one thought anything of it. But after she said something, another person started (Old Man Warner). This proves that when you change, you influence the people around you to change as well. And when they change, it’s most likely for the