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Blind Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Why does an individual follow a blind tradition in hopes of achieving “sameness” with the public eye or society? One is unconsciously trained to follow mindless tradition without knowing what it’s deeper meaning is. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, represents a long lost sacrifice ritual, now morphed into a blind tradition that people follow. A fictional village struggles with this concept, holding a voluntary “lottery” every year, where the “winner” is stoned to death. The villagers hold the lottery because they believe that the crops will be bountiful in the event that they do as such. Additionally, they feel as though they won't be tormented with some kind of disaster. The last motivation behind why the villagers hold the lottery is on the grounds that it is something they have been carrying out for so long, townspeople have recently made it a meaningless practice. The practice of the lottery is still unknown, but there are many pieces of evidence that …show more content…

Old Man Warner said, “There’s an old saying, Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” (pg.22, Line 260-270) Old Man Warner, the oldest inhabitant in the community, has lived to see 77 years of the lottery. This quote illustrates how the community cares more about their daily income than the people. It seems that they value the crops and money. In the context of the quote, two characters are talking about stopping the lottery, and one has claimed that it is foolish to stop the lottery, that one person’s life isn’t worth compared to the survival of the village. Most of the villagers are farmers, and their profession is how they get by, money and food. Hence, the welfare of the crops mean the most to farmers, and the quote hints that people believe that a sacrifice to the “spirits” will help their crops grow. Once again, the evidence hints that the lottery is a religious sacrifice, long

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Adam’s and Old Man Warner’s discussion about the idea of giving up the lottery. Old Man Warner states that “there’s always been a lottery” (Jackson 142). The inference of Old Man Warner’s words and tone suggests that there will always be a lottery, and that it should always remain, that it is wrong to question its existence. Given the violent nature of the lottery’s results and its enduring tradition throughout generations of participants, each succeeding generation obviously grows accustom to the violence and brutality it calls for. The children, for example, readily prepare for the occasion by amassing “a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and [guarding] it” (Jackson 139).

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This quote reveals how firmly rooted the villagers are to this tradition and how menacing they find the idea of change. The villagers take such pride in the ritual of the lottery

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