Informational Text

What Is “The Lottery” Really About?

by Patrick Daley
Readers have been asking this question for more than 50 years. Will they ever
learn the answer?

1 “The Lottery” is a terrifying tale. It was first published in 1948.

Since then, people have been asking the same questions. What is
“The Lottery” about? Is it about life in a small town? Or is it about
something bigger?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

2 The author, Shirley Jackson, had a happy life. She

was a successful writer. She had many friends. Jackson
and her family lived in Vermont. Their town was a lot
like the town in “The Lottery.” It was a small village.
The people were friendly.

3 So, what made Jackson write such a grim story?

Jackson avoided talking about her town. She didn’t
even like to talk about “The Lottery.” In one interview,
she said she wanted the story to show readers “the
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pointless violence and general inhumanity in their

Author Shirley Jackson did not like
own lives.” But why did she feel people’s lives were to talk about “The Lottery.”
filled with violence and inhumanity?

4 Jackson never explained. The inspiration for “The Lottery” remains

a mystery. Still, some people have a theory. Jackson wrote the story
just after the end of World War II. Real horrors had occurred during
the war. Neighbors had turned on one another. Beautiful villages had
become battlefields. Millions of people had died.

(Continued)

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 What Is “The Lottery” Really About? (Continued)

5 Of course, the war didn’t take place in Vermont. But maybe

Jackson set “The Lottery” in a friendly village to make a point. Maybe
the story is saying that even people who seem normal and nice can do
horrible things.

6 Some critics think Jackson’s story is brilliant. Why? The story

causes people to examine their own behavior. Would they be willing to
stand up to a crowd? Was Jackson asking us to think about that? Was
she asking how we respond to inhumanity in the world?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

7 We may never know for sure what “The Lottery” is about. We may
never know what Jackson was thinking when she wrote it. But we do
know one thing. “The Lottery” makes us think about human nature.
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Photo: © Erich Hartmann/Magnum Photos

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