Striking It Rich: How Does Winning the Lottery Affect a Person’s Life?

Would winning the lottery change your life? Over sixty million Americans make some sort of wager every day in hope of striking it rich (Winston 5A). Edward C. Devereux, Jr. states that the lottery offers a small window of hope and escape from everyday life:
Although escape is still not a legitimate expectation, the possession of a lottery ticket gives of authenticity to the hope for escape. The Lottery represents a tiny hope in the ‘closed system’ of toil and budgeting, a ‘safety value’ though which the repressed wishes crowd for escape. This is why the stories of lottery winners make news of never-failing popular interest. The story of a working girl suddenly rich is Cinderella brought to life and made dramatically real (Clotfelter and Cook 118).
However, for the lucky few who win the lottery and make that great escape from everyday life, their lives may change for the better, change for the worse, or change very little at all.
In 1988, Sheelah Ryan, of Florida, we...