Religion In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Traditions are something that people inherit from their ancestors, which are passed down from generation to generation. Tradition also play a major role in society today. Shirley Jackson derides society’s way of frantically following certain rituals. Characteristics in “The Lottery” are used to create similarities with Catholicism, by harping on the fear of change but only the ability to manipulate what any individual from traditions and the basis of Catholicism’s belief of the innocence in children. “The Lottery” has also established a clear link to Catholicism inspiring individuals to open their eyes and question blind belief in most rituals that society wants one to believe in.

Catholic religion has been around for hundreds of years lasting

When Catholicism is practiced in a family children start attending church at a very young age. At age seven a child would also be baptized and receive their first communion (Reed para 4). According, to Hull Catholic families are verbally crucified for not following their religious tradition (hull para 3). By Old Man Warner stating other villages are fools for stopping the lottery he criticizes them for not following tradition. This is exactly what would happen in a catholic family, drawing similarities in people’s fear of change. Many families have the belief that their child’s world would change due to the lack of faith, but Old Man Warner and the townspeople believe that their community would be trouble without the

Shirley implicated that the village have the right to pick and choose what fundamentals of the lottery happens, drawing similarities with Catholicism. For example, Catholic churches are controlled by men the bishop, priest, deacon, and popes while supported by nuns who compared to the men have very little say so over anything. In “The Lottery” the people are similar with this kind of standing, ran by men and supported by the women. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves protects the box, make the slips, and does the presentation ceremony for the lottery. If a woman husband draws a slip with a black dot on it, then the women would be allowed to participate in the lottery. However, if a woman husband is deceased or her oldest son is under the age of 16 is another way a woman would be selected to participate in the lottery. In Catholic masses the men are the priest and they perform the mass, in Catholic school men are seen to be more in control drawing similarities with “The Lottery”. “For example, Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey has four highly regarded educational standings, the Vice-Principle, President, Principle and Chaplain. The Chaplain, President and Principle are all held by men. The vice-principle who works and support the principle is the only woman working in the faculty” (Bergen Catholic). Men being in control is obvious and projecting