The Lottery

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an incredibly ironic story. The title in itself is ironic. One normally considers the lottery a good thing. If you win the lottery, you win money. In this story that's not the case. If you win the lottery you get stoned to death. It's also ironic that Tessie was the one who got picked for this year's lottery. She was late to it and made jokes about it and ended up being killed in the end for something she took so lightly. Probably the most ironic part of this story and one of my favorites is the way Old Man Warner talks about the lottery. He overhears someone saying that in other villages they have stopped the lottery and is outraged. He says, "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while" (565). Warner is talking about this barbaric act as if it is a good thing. The way he talks about the lottery would make you think it had to happen or bad things would happen to the town. A first time reading of this story would make you believe that the lottery is a good thing. Warner says that nothing is good enough for the young people and they will want to "go back to living in caves." That statement in itself is extremely ironic because the act of the lottery is so barbaric, but yet he is comparing those people who recognize it as barbaric cave men.