A Reflection on Human Nature
When The New Yorker published Shirley Jackson’s famous story “the Lottery” in 1948, American readers immediately backlashed against the author and the magazine because they found the topic of the story—a mass stoning of a housewife whose name was drawn at random from a lottery—extremely offensive and grotesque. Readers went as far as cancelling their subscriptions to the magazine and numerous threatening mails started pouring in, addressed to the author and editorial staff of the magazine. Readers were also offended because many easily recognized their rural communities and the typical activities conducted in these places such ...
