Reader's response: "The Lottery".

SUMMARY:
A bright sun is shining while the residents of a village gather, at 10 a.m. on June 27, in the square between the post office and the bank for the annual lottery. More than 300 of them are awaiting the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black wooden box; from which everyone will draw a folded slip of paper. Adults chat while children play a game in which of them have to gather stones.
Over the years, the lottery rules and paraphernalia remained the same except for minor changes; wood chips were replaced by the slips of paper. However, the rule for the winner remains the same; whoever gets the piece of paper with a block dot.
After Mr. Summers shows up with the black box, he sets it down and prepares for the drawing. A housewife, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, arrives late telling to Mrs. Delacroix she forgot what day it was, only remembering when she noticed her children had left the house. While each of villagers are drawing a folded slip of paper from the black box, some of them are talking about all different subjects; some villages are talking about giving up the lottery or some villagers wish the process was faster. They don’t open the folded slip of paper until everyone has drawn. When the big moment arrives, it is Tessie Hutchinson who has the paper with the black dot. Even though she is saying the draw wasn’t fair, the rest of the village pick up the stones; previously collected and arranged by the children at the beginning of the draw, and stones her.

THE PART I LIKED:
The part when Old Man Warner talks to Mr. Adams about the north village thinking to give up the lottery. It’s ironic because Old Man Warner doesn’t agree in giving up the lottery, saying “…Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves….There’s always been a lottery” and to the people who wants to give up the lottery he says, “Pack of crazy fools.” However, what they are all doing is as primitive as going back to live in caves. How come throwing stones to people is it acceptable?

THE PART I FOUND CONFUSED:
The whole story is little confusing, until the reason why the whole village are getting together is revealed to the reader; towards the end of the story. The only information we know until this moment is that people from all different ages are gathering in the square for some kind of lottery.

QUESTIONS:
Why do they do this kind of lottery?
Why are children involved with this lottery? I wonder if one of the young children had been picked they would throw the stones without any hesitation. During the story we can see all the adults want to make sure all the children are present at the draw.
After the revelation who would be getting stones thrown at. Why Mr. Hutchinson did not plea for his wife?

INTERPRETATION:
One of the interpretations for this story would be a comparison to people who are afraid of changes. They rather live in an old, sometimes, barbarian way of life than change it. People of this village have this “tradition” of throwing stones to a person who is selected by a lottery. Even though, the word lottery brings the idea that someone will get a prize, in this story the “prize” doesn’t seem to be a good one; actually, very painful.