The Lottery
"The Lottery" is a short story by American author Shirley Jackson, first published in The New Yorker on June 26, 1948.[1] The narrative unfolds in a small village of about 300 residents on June 27, where the community assembles for an annual lottery ritual presided over by Mr. Summers, culminating in a brutal act of collective violence that underscores the perils of unexamined tradition.[2] Jackson, who resided in North Bennington, Vermont at the time of writing, incorporated elements of local village life, such as the town square gatherings, into the story's setting.[3] The story's publication elicited immediate and intense backlash, with readers flooding The New Yorker with letters of disgust, confusion, and anger—over 300 in the weeks following—leading some to cancel subscriptions and demand explanations for its purported endorsement of barbarism.[4] Despite the uproar, or perhaps because of it, "The Lottery" rapidly became one of the most reprinted and taught short stories in American literature, appearing in countless anthologies and curricula for its incisive portrayal of conformity, mob psychology, and the persistence of ritualistic cruelty in modern society.[4] Jackson herself described the writing process as intuitive, claiming the idea struck her while pushing a stroller uphill in North Bennington, reflecting her observations of insular community norms.[3] Among its defining characteristics, the story employs subtle foreshadowing—children collecting stones, the dilapidated black box—and a deceptively mundane tone to subvert expectations, revealing how ordinary people rationalize participation in horrific acts under the guise of custom.[2] This has invited interpretations ranging from critiques of small-town parochialism to broader commentaries on human susceptibility to authoritarian traditions, though Jackson resisted reductive allegories, emphasizing instead the story's roots in everyday absurdities.[4] Its enduring notoriety stems not only from the visceral shock of its conclusion but from its empirical resonance with real-world instances of collective delusion, as later evidenced in psychological studies on obedience and groupthink.[4]Publication and Historical Context
Initial Publication
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson debuted in The New Yorker on June 26, 1948, appearing in the magazine's fiction section as a standalone short story.[5] The piece, clocking in at 3,773 words, was published without any preview or announcement hinting at its abrupt and violent resolution, preserving the narrative's unanticipated impact on subscribers.[6] Jackson had drafted the story earlier in 1948, drawing from a burst of focused writing completed over a few days with minimal revisions, before submitting it to the periodical.[7] This initial printing unfolded against the backdrop of postwar America, just three years after World War II's conclusion, as geopolitical strains with the Soviet Union escalated into the Cold War's early phases.[8] The New Yorker's editors opted to run it unheralded among routine features, aligning with the magazine's tradition of showcasing concise literary works that probed beneath societal surfaces during an era of burgeoning domestic conformity and institutional trust in communal rituals.[9] Such placement underscored a deliberate curatorial emphasis on fiction that challenged readers' assumptions of normalcy in mid-20th-century U.S. life.[10]Immediate Public Backlash
Following the June 26, 1948, publication of "The Lottery" in The New Yorker, the magazine received over 300 letters from readers within weeks, representing the largest volume of mail ever prompted by a work of fiction up to that point.[11] Of these, only 13 were positive, typically from personal acquaintances of Shirley Jackson, while the vast majority conveyed outrage, confusion, or condemnation.[11] Readers frequently expressed disgust at the story's abrupt depiction of communal violence, questioning its apparent senselessness and some interpreting it as an attack on American values or small-town life.[11] [12] Specific complaints highlighted bafflement over the narrative's purpose, with one reader, Miriam Friend, writing, "I frankly confess to being completely baffled by Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’" and another, Stirling Silliphant, inquiring, "Was it purely an imaginative flight, or do such tribunal rituals still exist and, if so, where?"[11] Others accused the story of poor taste or inflicted personal trauma, such as Carolyn Green, who scalded herself upon reading the ending, and numerous subscribers who threatened to cancel their subscriptions in protest.[11] Demands for clarification dominated, with some mistaking the fictional ritual for a real event and others decrying its perceived promotion of cruelty without moral resolution.[11] [13] Jackson issued no public rebuttal to the immediate critics, leaving responses to The New Yorker staff; in her later essay "Biography of a Story," she detailed the letters' predominance of bewilderment and abuse, noting their reflection of readers' discomfort with unrecognized facets of human behavior.[11]Author Background
Shirley Jackson's Life
Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California.[14] She attended Syracuse University, graduating in 1940, the same year she married literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman.[15] The couple relocated to North Bennington, Vermont, in 1945 after Hyman joined the faculty at Bennington College, where they raised four children amid the routines of small-town life.[16] Jackson's experiences in rural Vermont informed her observations of community dynamics and domesticity, as depicted in her humorous memoirs Life Among the Savages (1953) and Raising Demons (1956), which portray the challenges of motherhood and household management.[14] She developed a keen interest in folklore, witchcraft, and the supernatural, studying historical witchcraft and incorporating mystical themes into her writing, often viewing such elements as channels for exploring power and the uncanny.[17] [18] Throughout the 1940s and into the postwar era, Jackson navigated societal expectations for women as homemakers while pursuing intellectual and literary endeavors, maintaining an outward image of conventional domesticity despite private tensions.[15] She grappled with mental health issues, including anxiety that periodically confined her to the home, amid the demands of family life and creative output.[19] These struggles underscored a worldview attuned to psychological depths and the undercurrents of everyday existence, shaping her portrayal of human behavior in isolated settings.[15]Influences and Writing Process
Shirley Jackson composed "The Lottery" in 1948 while living in North Bennington, Vermont, where the small-town setting mirrored the story's village. Her observations of local children's play, including gathering stones, and adult conformity to traditions informed the narrative's portrayal of unquestioned rituals without direct autobiographical intent. Jackson's husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, a folklorist, shared anthropological materials with her, including accounts of ancient scapegoat practices and fertility lotteries aimed at ensuring bountiful harvests, which shaped the story's core mechanism over allegories to events like World War II.[20][21]
The writing process was rapid; Jackson drafted the story in one morning, drawing from empirical glimpses of human behavior in post-war rural America rather than speculative symbolism. Revisions followed submission to The New Yorker, but the essential form emerged swiftly from these grounded influences, emphasizing ritualistic adherence observed in everyday life.[22]