The lottery

1. What is a scapegoat? Who is the scapegoat in this story? Look up other examples of scapegoats.
A scapegoat is somebody who is made or forced to take the blame for others
This is because in the mid-16th century, in Jewish ritual the goat, having had the sins of the people symbolically laid on it, was allowed to "escape" into the desert.
In the story the unfortunate scapegoat is TessieHutchinson, she was chosen through a lottery that was made every year on June 27th, all the villagers didn’t hesitate to pick up the stones and throw them at her.
2. What law of probability has the author suspended in writing this story? Granting this initial implausibility, does the story proceed naturally?
It would be that Mrs. Hutchinson, the last person who went to the square and almost forgotthat it was the lottery, was the one who got the black spot on the paper. Even though it is hard to take place, the story has a natural flow, the author explains in order and with a lot of details what happens during the day of June 27th
3. What is the fundamental irony of the story?
All the villagers act very normal and friendly even with Mrs. Hutchinson, who was late and in a very good mood,willing to participate in the lottery but, at the moment that she knew her family was chosen, she started to say it wasn’t fair, even though, everything was done according to the rules, things got even worst when she turn out to be the village’s scapegoat, while screaming “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right”, all the people who were nice and let her through to join her family, they all surrounded herleaving enough space between Mrs. Hutchinson and them, with no remorse they began to throw stones at her.
The author might have thought if someone else was the scapegoat; she would have acted the same way as everybody else. Who would want to play a game were the winner losses his or her life? The answer to this question is ignorance of the people participating.
4. What is the significance of thefact that the original box has been lost and many parts of the ritual have been forgotten?
Like it is shown in history, society is in constant change along with our culture and traditions and not everything last forever and the ritual of the lottery is slowly disappearing and will be lost just like the original box, this is reflected on the new generation that is losing interest of this traditionand the author also narrates that other villages have stop or planning to stop the lottery.

5. What different attitudes toward the ritual are represented by (a) Mr. Summers, (b) Old Man Warner, (c) Mr. and Mrs. Adams, (d) Mrs. Hutchinson, (e) the villagers in general? Which would you suppose most nearly represents the attitude of the author? Why?
(a) Mr. Summers was the person in charge ofconducting the ritual and he always did it with respect, the lottery was very important for him that he even wanted to get a new box because the other one was too old and damage.
(b) Old Man Warner was the oldest man of the village and he was in a bad mood because he thought it was foolish to stop the lottery, for him it is part of civil society and young people should respect the rituals.
(c) Mr.and Mrs. Adams also respects the rules no matter how nervous they were and in a way, they are a little open minded to listen and comment about what is happening in other villages, taking no parts in what is the right thing to do.
(d) Mrs. Hutchinson attitude at the beginning was very relaxed that she said some comments and made all the other villagers laugh. For her it was something normal andshe wanted to go back to her house as soon as possible to finish her chores but, she completely changes her attitude when she is the one to be sacrifice.
(e) The villagers in general already knew the ritual and all the rules, most of them didn’t pay full attention to what Mr. Summers said and each one who was the head of the family came up to him when they were called doing everything according...