Jackson wrote this story to keep her readers in suspense the whole time. One can guess "The Lottery" meant a drawing for money, but a stoning? This story seemed to take place in the 50's because of a small town where everybody knows each other, where kids played together, all the parents were married, no divorcee, only men were allowed to draw from the box, and everybody was polite. Every character was a protagonist, starting …showed first 75 words of 247 total…

…showed last 75 words of 247 total…of townspeople nervous, anxious, hoping to get the winning ticket so they can go home richer, and wondering why this so called lottery was banned in other towns. But the point was not to get the winning ticket, but to not get it. It was a town tradition, that even if you were popular and you got the winning ticket of coal, no matter what, you'd get stoned, that's why this lottery took two hours.