The Message of Social Responsibility in the Lottery by Shirley JacksonOften, we paint a fairytale vision of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes an author paints a terribly realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairy tale. In Shirley Jackson's story, "The Lottery," a town holds an annual lottery in which the winner or loser, in this case, is stoned to death by their own neighbors. Tradition is meant to maintain the social structure within the city, but to understand the true meaning of history, one must be able to read between the lines. “The Lottery” is the story of a town that has let its traditions go too far. Furthermore, it is clear that the story contains revealing facts that lead me to believe that the author's intentions were not to write a horror story, but rather to scream for everyone to stop and to realize that we have problems that we can and must address, that can make a difference in the lives of many people in our society. The author states that the lottery takes place every year in the spring. Flowers bloom and birds sing, but this warm town quickly becomes a dark, overcast setting for a satanic event. This horrible ritual ends in bloodshed and death. In our society today, there are big cities that have beautiful parks and people generally keep them clean and pretty...... middle of paper...... lottery, and this could lead to many more innocent deaths. . The fact that there are places in the world today where immoral actions are occurring means that we, as responsible citizens, are not doing our jobs. The American people must wake up and learn to stand up for what they believe in. Works Cited Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed Sylvan Barnett. New York: HarperCollins, 1986. 862-868 McQuain, Michelle. "Edit only when affected." Ode to Friendship and Other Essays. Connie Bellamy, Virginia Beach: VWC, 1997. Walden, John. “Critical Essays of John Walden.” Electric library. http://www.elibrary.com/id/230/270/lid, 1996.