Brief Summary

"The Lottery" tells a story of a small American town which on the surface appears to be the home to roughly 300 average Americans. The town is readying itself for a ritual known only to the reader as "the lottery". The story begins on the clear and sunny morning of June 27th, however the mood of its residents is one of a strange, eerie nervousness. Children gather stones in hopes of a good harvest in the coming year, and the town collects around a small black box. In the first round of the lottery, the head of each household draws a slip of paper from the black box, followed by the second round where each family member draws a slip. After, each person checks their paper to see who's carries a black dot at the center. Tessie, a woman who arrives late to the lottery discovers that her paper bears the black dot, and such 'wins' the lottery. For her prize, Tessie is then stoned to death by the town.

Tuesday

On my friend Ben

Generally every Monday or Thursday he and I head down to our local BW3's and have a few discussions about what's going on. It's a great way to get out of the house. Because this is so informal, I decided not to record word for word his interpretation of the story itself. However, I did find his interpretation of it to be somewhat similar to mind, except he didn't catch any of the foreshadowing, or character traits that might hint towards the ending. He claimed to be oblivious the whole time that something sinister was going on behind the scenes. While I find this hard to believe, it's not really something I would argue with him about. As for this conversation being at all insightful, the only thing I took from it relates back to our histories. My high school and grade school were both intensely English based. In 8th grade, we read "Oedipus Rex", a story which some high school seniors still don't fully comprehend. Ultimately, I think that his outlook on the story was due to lack of either caring or lack of education on the skills or tools needed to read a story, and read past it. As Flynn would describe it, the text dominated him.
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