Ritual In The Lottery

“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson is about a town coming together to hold a lottery. The twist being the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by the town members. No one really know why their town and the ones surrounding it keep the practice going. But no one stops the ceremony they just know it is an event that happens every year for the past seventy seven years. Through the characters and the ritual of the lottery Jackson demonstrates how people blindly follow their traditions without knowing their history.

Most of the original rules of the ritual were long forgotten so the town just created their own way to proceed. Throughout the book it talks about how they skipped over the original chants and speech before the names were

It gives insight into the fact that they do this ritual because their ancestors believed that by sacrificing someone every year their crops would be plentiful. Some of the towns are thinking about stopping it and that’s why the old man says that they are fools because he thinks their crops won’t grow and they will have no food for their livestock or money from selling them. Most people in the town now probably don’t even know the saying anymore or don’t even believe in it, but they counting to kill people for that initial reason.

The town has a black box which is the center of their tradition. The box is a faded black and black represents death which is appropriate because whoever “wins” the lottery is stoned to death. They have had it for so many years that it is splintered and falling apart. But they will not replace it because it is said that the box was made from pieces of the original box before it. But yet they keep the box in random places when it is not in use for the rest of the year. They still fear the box and what it means yet enough time has passed that they really don’t take the time to store it in someplace with