response to Shirley Jacksons The Lottery by Alohalani Brown
... Only in this story, the “normal folk” persist in following a tradition, the lottery, whose origins no one remembers. ... The ritual is displayed slowly, and to my mounting horror, I realize that the lottery is a tradition that has its roots in human sacrifice to augur good crops. ... They are extremely reluctant, as if they find it almost sacrilegious, to modernize any aspect of the lottery. ... It is precisely this blind acceptance, the same unquestioning belief in the lottery’s tradition that leads the villagers to perpetuate such an inhumane act. ... ) Just as the women do not question their position is a male-dominated society, just as they wear their “faded housedresses”, they wear the lottery as a shroud that they put on once a year and even then, barely acknowledge the gravity of the crime they commit, using ritual, tradition and an apparent democracy in using chance (a lottery) to signal out the designated victim.