The Lottery

            Several years back, there was a small village in New England where the people believed in a mysterious superstition. Every year, the people used to hold a lottery to please the Gods so they could eat a good harvest. This story brings to lime-light, the superstitious beliefs of villagers, which leads to unnecessary "sacrifice" of human life, just for the sake of pleasing their deities. It also elucidates the atrocities and sufferings of women folk of the village, who are ostracized by the villagers.
             In the beginning of the story, the author has made a clear difference between the description of the men of the village and their women. This is expressed in the scene where the boys make a great pile of stones in one corner of the square, while the girls stand aside talking to themselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys. This shows the more wild and harsh thoughts of the male gender, though expressed by children than the tender and innocent emotions of the feminine gender. It is mentioned in the story that the men began to gather and survey their own children, spoke of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. Analyzing the above words exposes that it was the men of the village who were worried about the yield and rain and were the main cause of the "Lottery System" to be in existence at that time. Further, it was said by the author that "The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their men folk"(25). Thoroughly analyzing the above sentence, it can be split up into three parts to express the image of the common woman in the village. The concept of women wearing faded home dresses shows their negligence in the male dominant society. It is never mentioned anywhere in the story where men have to wear shabby or worn out clothes. Secondly, it is mentioned that they were wearing sweaters. Now the author started the story with a description of the climate which was said to be a clear and full sunny day.