Outdated Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Darren L. Johnson once said, “Don’t allow old traditions to become permanent mental scripts for managing your life in the present. Reason: you will not be able to transform yourself to think differently and be better as you grow with age and maturity.” This quote stresses the significance of recognizing outdated traditions. An underlying theme of “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, is the reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, ideas, rules, laws, and practices.

An example of a bad tradition is the hazing that is often required to join a fraternity. Often times, a student attempting to join a fraternity is required to participate in an initiation ritual and these rituals have resulted in death multiple times. Similarly, the tradition in “The Lottery” results in death. After each member of the community has drawn a ticket, each person reveals their prize. The one unlucky individual who draws a the ticket with a black spot on it is required to take his family back up and redraw. The family member who then draws the black spot is stoned to death by the remaining members of the community.

In the case of the hazing involved by college fraternities, the fraternity leaders are reluctant to stop the traditional rituals because the traditions are a very popular event and removing them could hurt the fraternity itself.

In “The Lottery,” the community refuses to discontinue the lottery because they fear what change it will bring. Mr. Adams mentioned that the north village was getting rid of the lottery and Old Man Warning replied stating that the people who get rid of the lottery are crazy fools. He also mentions that there always was a lottery and there is no reason to get rid of it. Whenever it was mentioned to modify the lottery in any way, nothing was done and it was forgotten. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything’s being

done”(1).
In addition, the pressure that potential members face to participate in these initiation rituals is the sole reason that they do participate. They understand that it will get easier afterwards and they will fit in with the rest of the crowd. This pressure to blend in often can convince individuals to risk doing something they feel is wrong, just because they understand that they will be rewarded if they succeed. Similarly, in “The Lottery,” members of the community participate in the lottery because they refuse to be the odd man out. If, during the lottery, an individual refuses to participate, it is possible that the community would skip the lottery altogether and the individual would take the place of the scapegoat that the community was looking for. It is too hard for a member to survive while not participating, so they participate because they know it will be easier if they do so.
In conclusion, the hazing involved in the rituals for entering a college fraternity often has
the same consequence as drawing the unlucky ticket in the lottery. Outdated traditions have disastrous consequences that can be avoided by discontinuing these hazardous customs while still remembering the consequences to prevent implementing further destructive practices.