In the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is a ceremony practiced by the people of the village. This is a yearly drawing held in which a member of the village gets stoned to death, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson conveys several messages about human nature in her short story. The most meaningful message she sends is how brutal and violent people can be to one another. Another significant message she sends is how tradition and custom can hold domination over people. Jackson also sends the message of how men treat women as objects.
             The main message that Jackson conveys in "The Lottery" is that people can be a part of such cruel activity and not think anything of it. The children went about the day as if this was normal, "School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands." (213) All the villagers gather together annually to perform this horrible act of murder without questioning it. Mr. Summers, the conductor of the lottery states, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work." (215) This illustrates how they consider this horrible attack as normal. Old Man Warner mentions, "lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." (216) This confirms how the act of stoning people to death is thought of as an ordinary thing. The children do it, as do the family members of whoever is picked. Jackson demonstrates how people of the village participate in the lottery rather than standing up and stating that it is wrong.
             Another message that Jackson illustrates is the blind following of tradition and how it can be so brutal. All the members of the community participate in the lottery; th...