"Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun" - Lady Gaga

"There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people still believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse" (7).

Now that I am finally finished with retyping up that sentence, I would like to point out the irony of the statement in comparison to the rest of the story.  This ritual appears to be a timeless tradition in the town to determine a sacrifice before the harvest, but they let these details just fade away.  The tradition did not even allow for the black box to be reconstructed but one time, and even then they were sure to build the new box using pieces of the old box.  It seems to me that the point of view in the story is used to show the major flaws of the lottery, since anyone partaking in the lottery would have a very different opinion based on age.

• Elderly - As shown by Old Man Warner, if the lottery were to be done away with, people would want to go back to live in caves and never work anymore.  How Barbarian would that be, cause, you know, stoning people is all the rage these days!
• Adults - These people would be split pretty half I feel like.  None of the adults seemed overly thrilled during the actual lottery, but sure seemed to be having fun after they found out they did not win... or lose?  It really just seems like it would depend who you asked and how many family members they had lost.  Though judging by the conclusion, families do not matter when a little black dot on a paper is drawn.
• Children - The children still probably do not understand the idea of death (though it appears no one else does either), so I do not think that they would be opposed to the lottery.  Children practically made it a game to see who could made a larger pile of rocks it sounded like.

All I can say to this story:  At least they do not live in caves.