This short story takes place in a small village of 300 people, where everyone is assembled in the central square for the lottery. Every head of family gets to draw a paper from the box, and the family with the black-dotted paper is chosen. Every member of that family has to draw another time, and the person with the black-dotted paper "wins": they get stoned to death by their fellow villagers.
A large controversy surrounded "The Lottery". The magazine in which it was published lost hundreds of subscriptions, and the author received a lot of letters from angry or disgusted readers. It was listed in the 30 most often banned books in America in 1984.
The names in the story all have a specific signification and are very ironic. For example, Mr Summers is the one bringing the bad news, Delacroix is the one throwing the biggest stone and Martin refers to apes!
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