The Lottery

"Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads." Shirley Jackson wrote this quote in her story, "The Lottery". I read the paragraph over and over again because I just couldn't fathom the fact that these kids knew that somebody in their family was going to die and they were beaming and laughing. Even though I knew that my life was going to be saved knowing that my mother was going to be murdered would seriously depress me. When I first read the story the fact that Mrs. Hutchinson was stoned to death came as a shock to me, just for the pure fact that her kids were so happy. It's a contrast to her own emotions though. As soon as she found out that it was her family that got picked by the lottery she immediately began making excuses why it should not be her family to be picked. She said that there was not enough time to have chosen the name.