A lottery is a form of gambling where a prize is awarded to one or more people based on chance. A lottery is a popular method of raising money and can be found all over the world.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
A short story written by Shirley Jackson called “The Lottery” has a number of themes that the author brings up. This short story takes place in an American setting and questions the tradition of violence that has been a part of society for ages.
The story starts off as a group of young people gather together in the town square for the annual lottery. The men unobtrusively joke, while the women tattle on each other. The conductor of the lottery, Mr Summers, shows up in the square carrying a black box that does not belong to him. He has a lot of time on his hands and wants to do something good for the community.
There are several different types of lotteries and all have two basic elements: the drawing, which determines which tickets have been selected, and a mechanism for pooling and accounting for the money paid as stakes. In most large-scale lotteries, a number of sales agents are employed who pass on the money paid for tickets through their organizations until it is in the pool.
The winner is either paid a lump sum or an annuity. In the latter case, a portion of the prize is taxed in the same way as income taxes are, with the remainder being left in the lottery fund.