Ritual In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The blind following of ritual in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is shocking by the way the villagers participate in “The Lottery” without realizing what is actually happening, but no more so than the mindless rituals noticed by modern society. Although some villagers may ask questions about “The Lottery,” they all participate in it. They become unthinking members of a crowd, giving up their choice to do otherwise and sending Tessie Hutchinson to her death. I believe that society had become so used to violence, that they were numb to it and thought it was something they had to do. At first, the reader is given a title that makes the reader believe that someone is going to win something such as money or some kind of prize, although it is far

from winning anything. “The Lottery” is a sacrifice and is a tradition rather than a ritual in this town, but out of respect and fear, the villagers are willing to involve themselves in an act of violence. There’s no way to prove this tradition really works other than to keep on with the way things have been. “The Lottery” is the blind following of tradition without looking at the consequences of losing a family member or friend without even realizing it.
The people of the town believe in old customs that someone must be sacrificed once a year to ensure fertile crops. Slips of paper are made for each head of household in each family. A black box from which the slips of paper are drawn is a part of this tradition. Family names are called in the alphabetical order during the drawing of “The Lottery.” Old Man Warner states, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” as a sign of this tradition (Jackson 293). The importance of rituals in the village in Jackson’s story was part of their survival in order to have fertile crops for the coming year. The tradition would be based off of the belief that by having “The Lottery” on the same day in June every year, a large amount of crops would grow to feed the villagers. Mrs. Hutchinson was the “winner” of the lottery and was stoned to death by the villagers. Although her family should feel proud that she is the one providing crops for the village, they should also feel sadness for killing a family member and friend. There are some readers that think “The Lottery” should end because it is not fair someone is being killed. As Mike Parker-Pearson states: “Human sacrifice requires the exchange of a life - willingly or not - in return for supernatural assistance” some may feel they have no choice (Parker-Pearson). The people of the village take part in “The Lottery” even though they cannot remember parts of the ritual, such as the "tuneless chant" and the "ritual salute," because “The Lottery” has been held for so long that these aspects have been lost to time.
According to Serge Kahili King, “To be satisfying intellectually, every word and movement must be filled with meaning which is understood by the participants and the observers.

Otherwise the event is just confusing and uninteresting. If you have to ask ‘Why are we (they) doing this?’ the effect of the ritual is lost” (King). Changes have been made to the original ritual. The narrator states that, “The original paraphernalia for “The Lottery” had been lost long ago” (Jackson 290). The narrator also mentions that “because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers had been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips of wood that had been used for generations” (Jackson 291). Warner has connection between “The Lottery” and work that is revealed by his response when told that other villages are considering doing away with “The Lottery:” “Pack of crazy fools . . . listening to young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery” (Jackson 293). This reference shows the villagers might believe that this tradition that they hold has some kind of luck for growing good crops. Basing tradition on some sort of superstition is actually common, especially in religious or

small places, such as this village. Although tradition can be good for many things, sometimes just does not make any sense to continue with them. This tradition is continued merely for the sake of keeping the tradition alive because they believe it has always worked. The villagers do not realize why they are picking up a stone and then destroying a life. It does not make sense to me why someone would be willing to kill someone so easily without hesitation. While the stoning is cruel and brutal, it’s an emotional impact by setting the story in what seems to be a civilized and peaceful society. The villagers have lost the ability to make their own decisions in this case. The people of the village do not panic or show fear. It seems as though Mrs. Hutchinson was pointed out early in the story as if it was known she would be the “winner” of the lottery because she mentions to Mrs. Delacroix that she was cleaning before “The Lottery” and just forgot when clearly she knew it was time for the lottery since it’s a day of death that would be hard to forget.
The people of the town threw stones collected by the young kids at the “winner” person until death only for blessing the town with a fertile crop. The villagers don’t seem to know why they are doing “The Lottery,” but go with it only because it is the tradition and has been for many years. Sacrifices only for the purpose of pleasing a god were required according to the villagers of the town. The reason the town is sacrificing death to the gods is to receive blessing for their crops. As most of the people today, we see these practices to be unacceptable and cruel. Another town decided to stop this ritual and at the time of this story, had not lost their crops, but there’s no way to know if they ever did. The villagers show their blind acceptance of tradition by hiding their emotions. Battles between people kill the emotion, allowing the debaters to battle with no thought to personal relationships. The last part of the tradition came after the papers had been drawn and the victim had been selected. The killing of a family member and friend was at hand. The villagers were completely deadened emotionally and directed volitionally by tradition. Refusing to change the tradition to provide for a more comfortable death for the victim was unheard of, for “they still remembered to use stones” (Jackson 295). Tradition had so deadened the villagers emotions that they were willing to stone a friend, a mother, and a wife—Mrs. Hutchinson. One individual was so blinded by tradition that he or she even gave a few stones to little Davy, Mrs. Hutchinson’s son, so that he could join in with the killing. Though she screamed out “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson 295) in an attempt to bring the villagers to their senses, her voice was not hear and only ignored. The people had no affections that could cause them to reason. As tradition weaved itself into the villager’s hearts, the people lost emotion and feeling.
After analyzing “The Lottery” and describing Jackson’s illustrations of importance of this tradition, the understanding of rituals that the community in her story believed was the only way they could survive and grow fertile crops.

The issue with the town was that they had forgotten the actual meaning of the ritual that they performed every year and are blind by what is actually happening. The town only knew that it was performed every year, and had been for centuries. Jackson allows the view of stoning open to many readers. “The Lottery” is mixed with much irony such as leading the reader to believe someone will win a prize by the title, a sunny day suggesting a happy event will take place and when Old Man Warner hears that the north village is considering ending “The Lottery,” he says, "Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves” (Jackson 293). Jackson shocked me as a reader with her irony and unexpected ending when the villagers grab the stones and start throwing them at Mrs. Hutchinson. After executing Mrs. Hutchinson by stoning, the villagers go home or go back to living their lives as if nothing happened. No one actually won anything from this lottery. The younger villagers begin to do this and question the validity of “The Lottery,” even pointing out that other towns nearby have already done away with it. The blind following of ritual in “The Lottery” is showing that people only make decisions based on what everyone else is doing. I believe

that Jackson's point in this story is to not follow a crowd and to look deeper into what is actually happening.