Our Limits Transgressed: the Role of Tradition

Today, we pride ourselves as being a fair and just society. We take advantage of the liberties and freedoms given to us each day. The traditions that lie in our cultures, beliefs and customs, provide us with a sense of security and happiness. However, there is a much different consensus conveyed through the cruel and barbaric customs subsiding in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." The unsubstantial ritual of this society reveals te traditions and blind obedience of a small village town. Moreover, the characters stress the importance of questioning what is put forth to an individual as opposed to what an individual contemplates. While a disturbing evilness exists and is concealed out of the norms of this society, Shirley Jackson shows how colness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding traditions and values.

In effect, there is a significant amount of emphasis put on death of the culture. The story begins with very simple, seemingly unimportant details and evolves into undeniable facts that lead the reader against their own understanding. "The morning of July 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richlly green." This town is presented with the contention that is is extremely superstitious; the townspeople adhere to tradition unconsciously out of habit, "The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions: most of them were quite; wetting their lips, not looking around." This small-town village which savors on tradition turns a pleasurable and exhilarating lottery into a terrible and repulsive act of cruelty: "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the or...

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...e lottery" is a compelling, powerful, and thought-provoking story that represents the importance of social standards and classes in a society. The prevalence of social status is still an important part of our society today. In effect human beings tend to forget the importance of life and often take for grandted the freedom they possess. By utilizing the concept of irony, the story describes an unexpected death which individuals took for granted. Fundamentally, the moral allegory of a horrible execution reveals that even well-educated, modern, and cultured people can be led toward true evilness. Through the representation of each character and the way the setting helps to magnify those representations, the story possesses a deep meaning - when facing the possibility of death, human nature in all its complexity, comes down to one instinctive urge, that of survival.