However, her work - even her very persona as a whole - is increasingly finding new life on screen of late. Shirley Jackson’s groundbreaking brand of brooding psychological horror has been no stranger to the world of adaptation in the past. The genre’s current eminence has also brought another noteworthy name in the genre to the forefront of the entertainment industry. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.There seems to be a renewed fascination in Jackson’s unnerving texts, but these adaptations should live up to her legacy.īetween the steady influx of laudable Stephen King adaptations and fantastic original prestige horror entries that have graced screens in the last year or so, the rise of the horror movie has caused a noticeable ripple effect in Hollywood. And by leaving plenty of gaps for our minds to fill in, it triggers new ideas, loony or otherwise, in everyone who arrives at the last sentence: Its success lies in its mystery: it forces us to wonder and ask, “What the hell did I just read?”. Whatever the true meaning behind The Lottery is, its reception and continued popularity demonstrates the power of shorts stories to ignite human imagination. After the first draft, Jackson reports to have only made “one or two minor corrections”. Though it provoked much reaction and contained (a perceived) multitude of themes, The Lottery had a surprisingly impulsive and unarchitected origin. In a recent article, Slate reveals that Jackson wrote the story with apparent ease that, “it went quickly and easily, moving from beginning to end without pause”. Maybe for a certain movie more than half a century later? Because of its abrupt and shocking ending, some readers even thought the printer had mistakenly cut the story in half. There were even accusations of a publicity stunt. One correspondent believed to have discovered a hidden communist agenda, while others accused the author of perversion and “incredibly bad taste”.

The Lottery provoked an inundation of letters to the New Yorker, which first published the story in 1948, some more bizarre than others. The lottery takes place in other towns around the same time and its purpose is unclear, however the consequences of having one’s name drawn, without spoiling the entire plot are, to say the least, dire. It centres around a small town, whose residents meet for the annual ‘lottery’. Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is one of the most famous American short stories and perhaps one of the most baffling.

Jackson the lottery summary