We can transform our lives by altering our thinking process and the stories of Shirley Jackson and Chris Abani highlight changing thinking. Shirley Jackson's story, “The Lottery,” conveys a great ironic tradition of a certain American community in a historical moment, probably not so ancient. Similarly, Chris Abani's “The Lottery” also explores a similar tragic story about the loss of a life and presents life and survival as a lottery, which is never certain. In this regard, both stories express a common theme of a traditional belief and a tragic end to a life, but in very contrasting ways and settings. Shirley Jackson portrayed an American village, where people carry out a sacrificial ritual to please the god for the productive harvest. The story sets up the mafia crime in a very simple positive tone, slowly reaches the climax and ends on a negative tone. She was amazed at the mass crime actively practiced in a relatively not so old city in America. An innocent individual, who unfortunately chooses a black-marked token, was ceremonially stoned to death...