I didn’t realize until our professor mentioned how hostile we become when one gets off the hook accidently and becomes unfair for ourselves. When our professor forgot to have one of the groups pick a paper from his hat, many of us, myself included, made sure that the last group would draw from the lottery. This is one of the many things that Jackson is trying to show the reader, how selfish and hostile we have become as a society.
Another thing that got my attention was when Tessie Hutchinson kept crying out “It isn’t fair!” She wanted a redraw because she felt like her husband wasn’t given enough time to pick out the lottery from the box. Yet if another person was in her shoes, she probably would tell that person to suck it up because she would be in relief. That’s what we tend to do, claim that it isn’t fair or come up with an excuse when bad things happen to us.
Lastly, the character that drew my attention was the old man Warner. He is one of the oldest man in the village and claims to have been part of the lottery for 77 years. He drew my attention because he kept saying how people aren’t the way they used to be and how young people don’t understand. The old man is an example of how blind people are violence; just because it has been a tradition for a long time, it has to be kept.
Old Man Warner also drew my attention because he lived through this practice for 77 years and yet he is not only fine with it, but called any one who questioned it as “crazy fools.”
Our instincts is to survive after all. What shocked me most was letting their own family members take part in the stoning.
I agree with your last point about how blind people have become to violence. Just because it is tradition does not justify it, yet people often times refuse to let go of these traditions.