"The Lottery"

"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about a old, outdated, and brutal tradition that is still being carried out within this small village every June. the story begins on a clear and sunny day on June 27th. The village was beginning to gather in the square on the early in the day, and there are foreshadowing events of what is going to happen as the boys of the village search and gather the smoothest, roundest and best stones they can find. After the Village has arrived, Mr Summers; who has always had the time and energy to lead this ritual due to his successful coal business, could be seen and the leader of this small community of 300. He carries out with him, on his way to the village square, a black box, and sets it one a stool in the center of the square, as the people keep their distance. The night before the "Lottery" Mr Summers and Mr Graves had prepared pieces of paper that were waiting in the box. The Lottery then begins as Mr Summers begins to alphabetically call out to head of each house to pull one slip of paper from the black box. After some time, everyone who was required to pick had done so, even Mr Summers. The head of each house, who has their paper tightly folded in their hand, then looks at their slip to check to the dot. Bill Hutchinson, has drawn the slip of paper with this dot on it, and Bill, his wife Tessie, and three kids are forced to draw out of the box one of the five pieces of paper, to see who once again has the black dot. Tessie drew the paper this time, and as the entire village moves in on Tessie, begging for her life, she is stoned to death by them all, even her own family.

I think that the story shows that some of these everlasting tradition that were once a long time ago acceptable, now are not. We do not need to follow these traditions as times have changed and new traditions are being made, replacing these old fashioned ones that are now seen as strange and out of the ordinary.

We do not know how this tradition started, maybe in some way they felt that if the people are allowed to take out all their human rage and natural instinct, in a relatively safe way, it will keep them from causing problems and taking this out on other members of the village, throughout the rest of the year. Many people need to take out this rage and anger today, so they Box, Play sports, exercise and partake in other activities that they have total control over.

The contrast of this story is that in many ways Tradition is good, every year for probably the past hundreds of years, this village, and many others alike take part of this brutal happening. they come together as family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and as a whole partake in this event. "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon," is said by old man Warner, the longest lasting citizen at 77 of this village, is probably one of the strongest believers of this tradition, and maybe he sees some value that we do not, and maybe even as strong minded as he is, when his time comes, he will think differently about this. The contrast is between something pleasant, the gathering of a village for the annual lottery, and something mentally and physically gruesome, a ritual killing.

The Black Box, a symbol of death; much like the black dot that sentences someone to death each year, has been talked about having replaced, but never has, as it is just as big of a piece of the tradition, as the event itself.

I can't really relate to this story as it is not on my time nor have I taken part, or heard of such a thing happening. Overall I do think that this is a good short story to read, as it is a very powerful story and really makes you think about these types of things.

"The Prospector's Trail"

The short story "The Prospector's Trail" is about a young couple newly out of training at a college where they got their tourism certificates, and cant find a steady job. After Norman had lost many jobs and grew a reputation throughout the city, and Jeniffer could not make enough to support them both they decide to move to Yellowknife, and follow Norman's remaining dream of opening an interpretive center. They leave with their van, old furniture, little belongings, and no more than a few hundred dollars. They stay at what seems to be a campsite with another couple, Roy and Elsie, they meet that are staying in a new camper (opposed to the old, ragged, moldy tent Norman and Jeniffer are staying in) while they try to set up their plans for the center. Jeniffer treats Norman badly and threatens to leave Norman if he doesn't pull his life together, or if she ever catches him wearing a plaid jacket. After some convincing Roy(the husband of the other couple), takes Norman out prospecting order to give him the true northern experiance, Roy tries to fool Norman and not tell him his secret prospecting spot, however, Roy takes pity on Norman after Norman tells Roy how Jennifer will leave him if he doesn't make money soon and takes hi to the real place. To Normans surprise Roy leads him to the dump, Norman then realizes that the way Roy made his living by cleaning up, and selling items from the dump. Roy find a small tarp that is perfect for Norman's and Jeniffer's"s tent to cover the holy and Norman then tries looking through the piles of garbage, and finds a plaid jacket, just like Roy's, and just like the kind Jeniffer would leave him over. Norman knew that by taking, cleaning and wearing this jacket, he is ending his marriage, but he doesn't seem to mind because he is unhappy and this is the only way he can move on in his life.

I connected to this story in one way because last summer my grandparents came form Alberta to go camping with us on the island, they brought their new motor home, we brought our old tents. My grandma rarely left the motor home(much like Elsie), as she cooked, had showers and lived in it as if she was at home, I, however, got stuck with the bad tent with the wrong poles and ended up sleeping with the top of the tent resting on me. It wasen' t very fun sleeping but we all still had fun, and it was good to see them, as i usually only do maybe once a year. I really like the ending of this story because it really changed Normans life, for the better, and he had to make such a hard, but in the end, right, decision.