Small towns can be friendly; they also can be closed-minded and cruel. The Lottery shows how both traits can exist in the same people at the same time. The story begins on a warm, sunny day as the community gathers for an annual ritual. Townsfolk chat among themselves in a manner that suggests long acquaintance and friendly fellowship. The lottery, however, is a different matter. These nice people will conclude the event by stoning to death one of their own.

The purpose of the lottery is ostensibly to ensure a good harvest. That this is irrational is clear, yet the people continue to practice the ritual. Nearby towns have abandoned the lottery, but this town persists doggedly onward, performing the rite despite occasional murmurs of doubt. They know the lottery is a relic of the past, but they won’t abandon it.

This clearly is a form of group madness, yet the villagers carry out the rite’s brutal demands by stoning Tessie Hutchinson. As the victim, she is the only one to protest. Not even her own family, including her youngest son Davy, shrink from participating in her execution. The story suggests that people can be more concerned with convention than with its consequences; that rationality is trumped by group-think; and that normal-seeming people can behave heinously in a crowd.