An Outdated Act Of Tradition In The Lottery By Sherly Jackson

The Lottery, is an outdated act of tradition that involves ancient rituals that is wrongfully pointless followed by the towns people. “The Lottery” is an unforgettable short story by Sherly Jackson, Jackson who uses the black box, small slips of paper, the people in charge, and the stones to demonstrate that the original tradition does not exist anymore. The morning of June 27th at ten o’clock the town people gathered between the post office and the bank to attend the annual lottery. The town people always followed this “tradition” but on the contrary it was an obligation to attend the annual event. The town people had no say whether they were participating in the event or not. They were automatically enlisted. This culture act was never dared

“The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner, the oldest man in the town, was born (Jackson, Page237)”. The black box is older than anyone in the town, so how do the villagers know that the tradition that they follow exist. The black box had faded paint around it and was physically falling apart. The black box that they used was made from the first two boxes to try and resemble the original box that they put together. As time went on the original black box was not physically present anymore. The black box represented evil and the torture of death. It was so important to the people that it blinded them to acknowledge it was not the original box that they had been using for years. This demonstrated that over time the tradition that they were brainwashed to believe in was slowly ceasing to an

Summers and Mr. Graves counted the families in the village and added them in the drawing. The slip of paper with the black dot determined which family won. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves were always in charge of putting the chips of paper in the box and locking it away in Mr. Summers property, “The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box (Jackson, Page 237).” When they lottery was pulled on the Hutchinson’s Tessie found it unfair. “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right (Jackson, Page 243)”. She refused to acknowledge that a simple paper would determine her last day to live. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery the ultimate money and finds death. “The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles (Jackson Page 242).” A wrongful act that her own child would have to play a second half to her death. A dead tradition that the people follow allowing their own blood to be a part of their murder. Drawing out a bad slip of paper was a major role in Tessie’s death, many conspiracies surrounding this horrible luck of drawing for a wrong tradition that does not