Death And Tradition In The Lottery By Shirly Jackson

The Lottery by Shirly Jackson, is not a hopeful story of luck and fortune as the title might suggest. Instead it is a story of death and tradition. The short story describes how tradition can be dangerous, and when it is followed blindly it can hurt many people. Nothing shows the dangers of tradition, and its exclusivity as well as the characters devotion to the black box. The black box is used as the vessel to hold the slips of paper that determine life and death. The black box was old and peeling and yet still it was used. “There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here” (Jackson 5). This shows

“Lottery in June, Corn be heavy soon” (Jackson 33), is a saying that many villagers repeat, The reliance on a box that supposedly is linked to a previous box shows the willingness of most to continue traditions even though there is no logic. “Mr summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (jackson 5). The dangers of traditions as described in quote above, is that most people know that their traditions are silly, and have no basis, and yet the traditions continue. “.....some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others

“Mr summers had been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips of wood, that had been used for generations. Chips of wood he argued had all been very well and good when the village was tiny, but now the population was three hundred and likely to keep on growing, it was necessary to use something that would fit more easily into the black box.” (Jackson 6) Like many people that celebrate traditions parts are left out due to inconvenience, however the overall message of the tradition stays the same. “There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from the box, but this also had changed with time, until now it was felt necessary only for the official to speak to each person approaching.” (Jackson 7) Parts of the lottery, like the black box, may have changed over time but the outcome never