In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson writes about a town that holds an annual lottery. The person that wins the lottery is stoned to death by the townsfolk. This practice reflects on many different historical events and happenings such as people being lynched, the Salem Witch trials, and World War 1. The Lottery reflects this because The lottery also kills people at random for no reason at all. Shirley Jackson most likely drew some inspiration for this short story from these events. I think that she drew her inspiration from the lynchings especially since that was happening around her time. Overall the lottery has a lot of references and draws a lot of its ideas from many events in history.