What is Lottery?
Lottery involves buying a ticket for a chance to win a prize. The drawing is done using random numbers or symbols. The prizes are cash or goods. Historically, the lottery has been used to raise funds for public works projects such as roads and town fortifications and to help the poor. Lotteries are also a popular way for states to raise revenue without raising taxes. In the United States, state lotteries have been legalized since New Hampshire established one in 1964. Since then, lotteries have been adopted by all but one state. Almost all modern lotteries follow similar patterns: the state legislates a monopoly for itself; establishes a state agency or public corporation to run it; begins with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, in order to maintain and even increase revenues, progressively adds new games.
People who participate in lotteries are usually clear-eyed about the odds of winning. They may have quotes-unquote systems about choosing lucky numbers or going to specific stores at certain times, but they know that the long odds mean that they are unlikely to win. However, this doesn’t seem to deter them. They participate in lotteries because they believe that there is a small sliver of hope that they might actually win someday, so why not give it a try?
The events of Jackson’s short story portray the sinfulness of humanity in general and the idiocy of the participants in particular. The lottery is not an unusual event for this remote village, and it is the fact that people willingly engage in these arrangements despite knowing that they will probably lose their money that proves how bad human nature can be.