It's interesting because most people who don't like this story don't give a good explanation as to why. Some of the comments these people said were things like, "I frankly confess to being completely baffled by Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery.'" Could you please send us a brief explanation before my husband and I scratch our scalps trying to figure this out? (Franklin). This quote from Miriam Friend only stated that she simply didn't like the story. Like many of these people who complain that this story is so "horrible", they must not have taken enough time to try to understand Jackson's point. The friend hadn't given any reason other than she obviously didn't like him. Jackson did a great job trying to portray how traditions can easily consume a city, no matter how useless they are. Another reader who wrote to Shirley Jackson was Camilla Ballou: "I read it while I was soaking in the tub... and I was tempted to put my head under the water and be done with it" (Franklin). Again, nothing Ballou said was about anything specific in the story, she just stated how it made her feel. This story shouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows, because it falls into the horror genre. Many readers are still stuck in the “tradition” that stories should be enlightening and not horrific. Therefore, many people