preview

Analysis Of The Book ' The Lottery ' Essay

Better Essays

"The Lottery" is a fictional account of a group of villagers who conduct a yearly ceremony to determine at random who among their community will be ritually sacrificed. The villagers have come to believe annual participation in this ceremony will result in good fortune. Specifically, it is believed the success of the corn harvest and continued provision of sustenance in the community can only be assured through human sacrifice. Though only a fiction, "The Lottery" conveys to the reader a message, albeit rather abstractly, about the real world around us. This message is the story 's central theme. By examining thematic elements of the story and concluding as to precisely what the main theme of the story is, the reader can derive an understanding as to the purpose and nature of the story, but perhaps even better yet can shine a light and narrowly glean a slight esoteric understanding of the author 's state of mind and personal experiences. In the case of the lottery, that theme is as follows: "times and technologies change, but people never will."

"The Lottery" opens with a scene like that out of a Disney movie: the sky is blue, it 's a warm sunny day, and the green pastures of the village have come to life. It is revealed that a lottery process would be commencing later in the morning on that late June day (June 27th) in the small village in which the story was set, and highlighted that surrounding towns engaged in the same process as evidenced by this segment of the text:

Get Access