Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Traditions in many cultures is what defines and warps cultures into what they are. The importance of tradition differs in each region of the world and individual traditions have major differences. Traditions may come from a long line of generations that continue practicing or rituals. Furthermore, there are traditions that are slowly being discontinued and possibly forgotten. More importantly, people should protect and honor traditions rather than abandon them. The absence of tradition will make it difficult to distinguish the difference between each’s own tradition. The characteristics that make up Asian cultures and European cultures are very distinctly different. With the fading of defining traditions, it is critical that the new generation

must continue traditional habits along with embracing them.
One modern example of a forgotten tradition is the method of eating in Indian households. The use of hands to consume food is a large part of Indian culture, but many Indian-Americans have cut off this long tradition. Is there a reason to stop this meaningful tradition? Eating with hands may seem impolite or embarrassing for the eater. Additionally, eating with one’s hands could cause issues with hygiene. Failure to practice these traditions could seem disrespectful one’s culture which is a reason why it is essential to understand the traditions in unfamiliar countries. Unfortunately, many do not respect the old way of doing things and choose what they believe is best. Indian-Americans choose to eat with utensils because it is seem as the correct cultural way of eating. The lack of respect to a cultural system is common amongst the youth and needs to fulfilled before another generation takes over and all is forgotten.
In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, tradition is a crucial part of the culture and is emphasized in the village, where the story takes place.

The tradition of stoning is still exercised in many parts of the world. The rules in each place can be diverse, but the method is universal in these countries in which stoning is a method to kill someone by repeatedly throwing stones at the individual until he or she is dead. Stoning is typically done by a group and often used as a punishment. Interestingly, the village in The Lottery does not use stoning as a punishment but more as a ritual. The stoning in the story is said to improve on crop production. Although the ritual is done annually in the village, mentioning the ritual is seen as a taboo. When two characters had a conversation about neighboring villages discontinuing stoning, Old Man Warner quickly warns them that stopping their tradition will be unpleasant. Warner seems to believe that without this tradition, the town would be lost. Similar to modern culture, many people are abandoning their old ways because they may seem uneasy on the details of their tradition but Old Man Warner’s statement stresses the importance of tradition in the village and why is it necessary to preserve tradition even if it involves the killing of an individual. Old Man Warner is what is necessary for traditions to

continue.
Tradition is everywhere and is critical in every culture, even if you don’t realize it. Although it might not seem like it, Halloween is a tradition that is still celebrated in numerous countries. Halloween dates back thousands of years where people dressed up in costumes to scare off bad fortunes and evil spirits. Halloween is a major tradition and it defines culture in America as millions of Americans look forward to this specific tradition. Moreover, the culture of warding off bad fortunes is forgotten but more focused on the costume part of the tradition showing how culture affects tradition as well. As more people celebrate Halloween, the purpose is lost, but the tradition is kept. Similar to a situation in The Lottery, the village has a tradition of using a black box as part of the process, but as time went by, the black box gets worn out and they replace the chips of wood with slips of paper. Continuing, the villages desire to stop stoning could display the change in culture as years goes by and people become more aware of the tradition and its effects.
One may have the thought that old traditions should be stopped and be replaced with new ones. One reason why that won’t solve any issues is because there would be new traditions coming in and being adopted and new issues that come along with it. There are some positive old traditions being replaced or forgotten because the new generation refuses to accept them. Chinese New Year, for example, is huge and is celebrated by almost every Chinese household. Just being celebrated isn’t enough because the families aren’t celebrating it to honor the new year but other reasons. If a person who celebrates Chinese New Year is questioned about what they like about the tradition and they will most likely say the red envelopes (envelopes filled with money). Furthermore, the tradition of the celebration involves a family dinner containing many foods that younger generation family members dislike. In order to solve that, the tradition is altered with its food course being changed from a Chinese feast to a more modernized feast. Although the new year is supposed to be celebrated as happy family time, many are looking forward to it as an annual method of receiving money (Making Sense 1). This opens the question, is it more important to celebrate traditions for its significance or its benefits. Traditions should be honored for its influence and ideas rather than the benefits of practicing these traditions. Therefore, families need to be reminded that their traditions exist and should not be rejected even if they do not seem relevant.
One major cause of many traditions failing to be continued is the effect of westernization (Making Sense 2). Westernization is the process of adapting western cultures and often forgetting their own cultures. Going back to the celebration for Chinese New Year, not only do some misunderstand the purpose of the tradition, many reject the existence of it completely. This is a cause of westernization where they prefer to celebrate more joyful traditions like Christmas. Even those who celebrate Christmas don’t seem to care for its true meaning. Similar to Chinese red envelopes, those who celebrate Christmas only look forward to Christmas for its rewards. In this case, Christmas involves the giving of gifts and these gifts masks the fact that it’s a holiday and a tradition that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Those who remember the purpose of the celebration may not care for its traditions and therefore, forget the holiday completely. This can result in people just looking at December 25th as a day of gift opening rather than Christmas day. The difference between December 25th for Christians compared to December 25th for an atheist is what is important about tradition. One party sees that exact date as a day of celebration and the other sees it as a normal day. These differences define culture for people all around different countries. With these traditions forgotten, there would be no variety in different people and nothing to separate two cultures.
Going back to a scene in The Lottery, the black box that has been seen countless times and is a depiction of tradition changing. Despite wanting to keep tradition like how it always has been, the villagers were forced to replace the chips of wood with slips of paper because of the wear and tear from age (The Lottery 283). The fact that the tradition has been done and the village has been familiar with the practice is a huge factor in the villagers deciding not to revolt against this horrific tradition. The selfishness in the villagers shows what they really want. No one dares question the lottery before and during the draw, but once the lottery winner is chosen, the winner complains about the fairness of the lottery. “Change can be an exciting journey if it is managed and executed correctly with planning and grace” and this applies to The Lottery directly. The villagers do want the lottery removed as shown by Mrs. Adam’s mention of other places removing the ritual but what Mrs. Adam forgets is the fact that the tradition of stoning acts as an equilibrium that balances the village. Those who believe in the process will continue to believe that stoning is the solution to their problem and those who don’t believe in the process will continue performing the tradition to avoid problems. With the removal of the tradition, problems will form from those who lost their answer to a problem and look for a new solution.
Keeping traditions could also backfire as shown in The Lottery. In the end of the story when Tessie was chosen, Mr. Summers along with everyone else shows no emotion or empathy towards Tessie. With her saying, “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (The Lottery 292), the villagers ignore her and continue their act as if it is just another ordinary day in the town. The villagers only care about getting out quick and get it done with. This shows tradition being so compelling that they ignore human decency. The negative side of stoning is shown but ignored because it is to be followed and it is tradition to follow the process until done. As tradition is attended, the facts should not be ignored but should be made known and done because it has to be done.
In, “In search of ritual: tradition, outer world and bad manners in the Amazon” by Oscar Calavia Sáez (Sáez 4), Oscar mentions in his research, “Of course, the Yaminawa people enjoy getting together to feast, although they do this in a markedly low‐key manner” (Page 1 of “In search of ritual: tradition, outer world and bad manners in the Amazon”).

This is similar to the villagers in The Lottery in the sense that people don’t want to continue to do the lottery system, but they just follow in fear of being hated for upsetting tradition in a similarly low-key manner. The thought of upsetting tradition has caused the villagers to act like sheeps in a system where they have no choice but in reality, they do. The fear of disappointing from not following tradition is missing from the younger generation nowadays and needs to be restored. In Chinese culture, the elders are to be respected highly for their age and wisdom and a lot of times they are responsible for passing on old traditions that they have followed. Not just in Chinese culture, the lack of connection between the old and young generations makes it difficult for the youth to have an understanding of their background. That missing connection is what is lost and essential to retain the essence of important

traditions.
Tradition, as seen in The Lottery as well as modern culture, can be seen as a guideline to everyday life. Tradition should have an enormous impact on people’s belief but today, it has the opposite effect. People in the past believed strongly about their religion but with the expansion of westernization to every part of the world, few may choose to follow their own beliefs when their beliefs are questioned by others. The desire to protect their culture and tradition is needed in order to protect the integrity of their cultures. Traditions may have a positive or a negative impact on society but those characteristics define what people are and become. What kind of world would we be in if everyone looked, dressed, and acted the same? There should be a factor that differs us from each other. Challenging the people of their beliefs is crucial to the forming of cultures.