A-Z SHORT STORIES

Context

Shirley Jackson had no idea of the angry reaction that her short story “The Lottery” would cause when it first appeared in the June 26, 1948, issue of the New Yorker Magazine. The initially negative response to the story surprised both Jackson and The New Yorker. Readers canceled subscriptions and sent hate mail throughout the summer. The Union of South Africa banned the story. This disturbing story tells of how a group of otherwise “normal” people can be so influenced by collective or mob mentality that they do inhuman things. This was shortly after World War Two, as Americans were learning of the horrors of German concentration camps, Japanese atrocities in the Asia Pacific, and their own use of the atomic bomb. The story suggests that such things could also happen in a typical small American town.