"The Lottery," -- Shirley Jackson

 I am still confused as to what the purpose of the lottery was in Jackson's short story. Could it have been to control population back in the day, a religious sacrifice to have an abundant corn harvest? lol I am not quite sure. I believe that the reason why Jackson wrote this fiction piece was because only something as exagerated as this can send the message out to her audeince at the time that there is a big danger in blindly following traditions and that we need to change how we go about persecution, at least at the time.