The Lottery Tradition Essay

Dictinary.com states that tradition is “the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth”. What happens though when the legends and beliefs that back up the tradition are lost; does it merely just become a habit that people over generation fall into? Something else to think about is the line of communication that goes between generation to generation. When a tradition is passed down for so many years it is easy for the meaning and the customs to slowly change overtime, especially if the only line of communication is verbal communication. Not only can verbal communication be interpreted differently from one person to another but there can also be miscommunication

Instead of someone winning the lottery like one would think, someone gets sacrificed for the sac of having a good harvest season, “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’” (55). The catch though is that the people of their society don’t even do the ritual for the belief of receiving a good harvest such as done when the ritual was first started. They just do the ritual because it has been done for years before them and no one wanted to mess that up, “…no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (52). It is one thing for a society to have a sacrifice because they truly believe it will bring them good crops, but if those beliefs change over time then why keep the tradition alive? Some characters in “They Lottery” such as Old Man Warner believe that changing or taking away the ritual all together would be detrimental to the society. When Old Man Warner finds out that some of the other villages have stopped the practice of the lottery, all he has to say is, “Nothing but trouble in that…Pack of young fools” (55). This shows how Old Man Warner is stubborn on letting go of tradition and looks down on the younger generation for wanting to take away the Lottery in their village. One could assume that the other villages realized that there is no longer a need for the violent tradition since the sacrifice doesn’t

Even the children were partaking in the ritual by “selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (51) and preparing a pile so that people would have rocks to choose from when it came time for the stoning. Even though the tradition is violent and unnecessary, no one seems to protest against how wrong and useless this violent sacrifice is. Instead, Shirley Jackson sets up the story to where the mood of the story is very mellow and there is even some jokes and laughter exchanged between people even though everyone is aware that someone is about to be sacrificed. Nevertheless, the ritual continues to happen every year because society is scared to get rid of it even though so much of the customs have been changed or taken out completely. Shirley Jackson states that, “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story’s readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives”. Through “The Lottery” Jackson helps bring into perspective of how dangerous it can be when humanity follows traditions, rituals, and customs blindly. “The Lottery” is a great example that showcase what can happen when a society doesn’t question customs or traditions, in this case one person is violently sacrificed because no one questions the tradition.