The New Yorker

Published in June 26, 1948.

Jackson's story made its debut in the June 26th, issue of the New Yorker in 1948. Where it received much controversy.

This controversy did not go without this statement from Jackson in the San francisco Chronicle:

"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."

Here Jackson, really just shows how people shouldn't be shocked. Her story is just to show how ridiculous and pointless violence against others is.