Summary: The story of “The Lottery” is about a ritual that takes place every year in the month of June. There were 300 persons living in this village where they believe that if they did not do it something bad would happen to the town. They had put slips of paper in a black box with the same number of people but just one of the pieces of paper was the winning slip. Each person living there had to take one paper even the children. Then the person who took the paper with the black spot on it had to be stoned to death. The game was conducted by Mr. Summers and the person who was in charge of the box was Mr. Bill Hutchinson and that day his wife was the person who “won the lottery.” For everyone, it was very important that the children be present at the stoning because the villagers want the next generation continue the tradition.

The part that I liked was in the beginning, when the people went to the center of the village and the parents wanted the children to be there. I liked that because I thought that something good would happen and I like the way the parents share the lottery experience with their kids.

The part I found confusing was when Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson took the paper and did not want to say that she won the lottery. I was confused because if you win something you want everyone to know but in this case she refused to show the paper.

My questions are: 1. Why would my teacher ask me to read this? I prefer not to read stories such as this one. I am a very susceptible person and I could not concentrate on my things after I read it. 2. How did the tradition start?