Shirley Jackson's Jewelry Box

Origin
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer. She was popular during her life, and her work has received increased attention from literary critics in recent years. She is best known for the short story "The Lottery" (1948), which reveals a secret, sinister underside to a bucolic American village, and for The Haunting of Hill House (1959), which is widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written.

In her critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when "The Lottery" was published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received". Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation, and old-fashioned abuse". In the July 22, 1948, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, Jackson offered the following in response to persistent queries from her readers about her intentions:

"Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

In "The Lottery", a small farming village is conducting its annual lottery, where every family in the town takes part in a drawing from a black box. In the end, it is revealed that the "winner" of the lottery is stoned to death in a ritualistic fashion to ensure plentiful crops for the year.

This jewelry box was inherited by Shirley from her mother Geraldine, with whom she had a strained relationship (Geraldine had been disappointed at being pregnant with Shirley so early in her marriage, and disliked her daughter taking to writing).

Effects
Opening the box in an area with a population of 300 people or more immediately every family in the populated area into a "lottery" of the box's design. Depending on how many people the box must enter into the "drawing", it will take anywhere between two and twelve (or even more) hours to select a "winner". During the "drawing" process, all people entered will begin to feel a sense of anticipation and eagerness without an immediately certain cause, appearing to be for no real reason. As time draws closer to the selection of the "winner", these feelings will grow stronger, causing antsiness and a subconcious thirst for violence.

After the process is complete, the box will begin to cycle through all who have been entered until it has chosen one male, the "head of the family" - this is accompanied by a temporary black spot on the selected's left palm, which soon dissipates. Then, of that family, all men with familes (i.e., all heads of households) are cycled through to determine which family will be selected from (this step is skipped if there is only one houehold within the selected family), with the same black spot marking the selected head. From there, all members of the selected family are put into the final round of the lottery (regardless of age or gender) and a "winner" is selected. This "winner" is marked with a darker, permanent black spot on their left palm that pulsates with heat, feeling very uncomfortable to the bearer.

Once the "winner" has been selected, every other person who had been entered into the box's lottery will instantly become violent towards them (regardless of distance, knowledge, or prior relations). They will be the focus of their collective, violent, and lethal mob mentality, which will not end until the "winner" is killed by any means.

Once the sacrifice has been made, the box ensures agricultural, economic, and cultural prosperity for the populated area for the rest of the year. Subsequently, all survivors who had been affected quickly begin to believe their continued prosperity relies entirely on the box's lottery, instilling a powerful sense of reliance and adherence to tradition, and become addicted to its use, regardless of whether they truly could continue to thrive without it.