“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, caught my eye, as it shows that brutality is actually a form of entertainment in the human society. In the beginning of this short story you would never guess that it would turn out to be an very violent one, as it starts of by saying “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” What seems like a beautiful start to a day, takes a very violent turn in the end. Names that were written on pieces of paper were placed into a box, and the unfortunate person whose name was drawn was stoned to death. In this short story it mentioned how little kids would stuff their pockets full of stones and even made great piles of stones to take part in this event. It was pretty sick how children would select the smoothest and roundest of the stones, of which they would use to stone to death an un-lucky person who‘s name would be drawn all for the sake of entertainment. In this short story many people seen this event as completely normal, a direct quote from one of the character by the name of Mr. Summer mentioned, “guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work.” This shows that their was no guilt or pain of what they were doing, which was hurting and killing an innocent person.
Even more to this is that there were actually festivities associated with this “Lottery” or the killing of an individual. Events such as square dances, teen clubs, and various other civic activities, a day that would be an tragic ending for someone turned out to be a joyful day for others. I feel as if the author does a great job on capturing that humans could be so evil and that it was actually in our nature. In an article by A. R. Coulthard, Appalachian State University, goes more into depth about this short story. For