With regard to Shirley Jackson’s short story, "The Lottery," relate parallels that occur in a modern context.

With regard to Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," it is
difficult to come up with a situation where one person is sacrificed by the community
through a lottery system, as occurs in Jackson's short
story.

The idea of a "lottery" in modern society is not,
however, unusual in itself. Many (most?) states have a lottery system. The proceeds of
this kind of "gambling" generally benefit others, such as senior
citizens. There is no punishment, as there is with Jackson's
story.

If there is anything that seems to be related to "a
game of chance," while not an actual lottery, I cannot help but think of the way the IRS
decides to audit people, or the way some states, counties, etc., choose people for jury
duty. Jury duty is supposed to be seen as a civic responsibility, and those chosen are
usually only inconvenienced. However, being audited at random seems to be something
where a business or "household" is chosen by chance (not including suspicious tax
returns, tips, etc.), and there can be a great deal of confusion, inconvenience and
upset for those involved. Still, there is no "death" penalty
involved.

Shirley Jackson's husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman (a
literary critic) noted that some people felt that the themes in Jackson's stories were
somehow connected to a form of neurosis on Jackson's part, but he argued that this was
not true, pointing to elements that were reflective of that time—that are still relevant
to our society almost sixty years after the story was printed in
the 1940s. He mentioned...

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'[h]er fierce visions of dissociations and
madness, of alienation and withdrawal, of cruelty and
terror...'

These are not
things found only in fictional novels, or stories of madness or horror: they are a part
of the world even today. Whereas a "lottery" with the same outcome as Jackson's story is
not in evidence today, the societal themes she included in her
writing are.