A lottery is a method for awarding prizes based on chance. Participants pay a small amount to participate in a drawing, either by selecting numbers or by having machines randomly select them, and then win prizes if their numbers match those selected by the machine. The practice is common in sports, business, and politics. For example, the National Basketball Association holds a lottery to determine who will pick first in each draft for players coming out of college. It is also used to give a select few the opportunity to attend certain public events, such as attending concerts by a popular artist.
The lottery can take many forms, with the prize fund often being a fixed percentage of total receipts. This means that if the prize pool doesn’t generate sufficient income, the organizer can lose money. It is common for large lotteries to include a single, large prize along with multiple smaller prizes.
Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is a horror tale about the consequences of winning. Whether you believe that the narrator of this story is justified in killing her neighbors or not, the conclusion is shocking and disturbing. In fact, the story has generated more letters to The New Yorker than any other work of fiction it has published. Many of the letters were in support of the narrator, arguing that people follow traditions because they are familiar with them. Others were in opposition to the narrator, pointing out that tradition can lead people to do terrible things.
