Traditionally Ignorant: The Lottery Essay: Are all traditions good? Do we blindly follow what has come before us, or can we question the structure in place? The "The Lottery" short story by Shirley Jackson is a terrific perspective filled with this dilemma. A small village with good honest people living their lives. Once a year, compelled to sacrifice one of their own due to some ancient ritual, they can barely remember. *Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remember to use stones. The "Lottery" - The Lottery. In the story you get to know how the people of this town go about the proceedings of this so called "lottery". Are these traditions justifiable? Old man Warner snorted. Pack of crazy fools, he …show more content…
There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly." The old man, like most of the other village folk we meet in this tale, simply follows along with such tradition because it is all they know. This does not equivocate it to being the "right thing to do." It is just what they do. It is all they know. Unfortunately, the one voice of reason we ever truly see is Mr. Adams and his exchange with Old Man Warner. People see no issue with their customs, for it has always been this way. To blindly observe this archaic practice. No retribution for their heedless actions against this random persecution This has been going on for generations as we see "the black box grew shabbier each year by now it was no longer completely black, but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained". The black box which has forced someone's fate for far too long has aged and is worn from it's use. Already having been replaced once "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