The lottery is a popular game in which participants purchase tickets for the chance to win money or prizes, typically by matching numbers drawn at random. It is also a common method of raising money for public works projects, such as roads and bridges, or to provide social services, such as education or veteran’s health programs. It is estimated that Americans spend over $80 billion on lottery tickets every year.

Originally, lottery games were used in the Low Countries to raise funds for town wall building and for the poor. Records from the 15th century in Ghent, Bruges, and Utrecht show lotteries selling tickets for “corn” and a drawing to determine the winner. During the 17th and 18th centuries, American colonists often held lottery games to pay for land, goods, and labor. George Washington sponsored one to fund a road across the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. State lotteries were introduced in the 1960s, starting in New Hampshire and later spreading to 45 states.

In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, the ritual of the lottery highlights the capacity for cruelty and violence that lurks in even seemingly ordinary societies. The townspeople’s adherence to tradition and blind belief in the practice allows them to commit horrific acts of violence. Jackson’s unadorned prose serves to heighten the suspense and tension of the story, and her portrayal of the irrationality of mob mentality and the dangers of blind conformity are both thought-provoking and timeless.