The Lottery

I have experienced this story before in our One Act Regional Competition as a script instead of a short story. I think the story is interesting, but extremely disturbing. The fact that they draw papers to pick the next person to die, man, woman, or child, is really sad. I can’t imagine a world where that is the norm. Also, when they tried to mention the option of getting rid if the lottery, the elders shot them down. Even in these obviously older times, conformity was promoted. I thought it sent a powerful message about how dangerous conformity can be. The play followed quite well along with the short story, actually. The most haunting part of the story and the play in my opinion was the ending when the mother is about to be killed. In the play, they ended with a circle around her and rocks raised to stone her. It was scary, especially after realizing that things similar to this happen in a metaphorical sense even in today’s world. We all conform to the social norms, despite the dangers and bad things that come along with it. It reminds me a lot of the reign of Hitler, because Germany followed the ideas of one man, without objecting much, just like the townspeople in this story followed tradition and the elders. Basically, I thought it was quite interesting but nothing too new, as I’ve seen it before.