Literary analysis essay In the gothic story of the lottery by Shirley Jackson, the theme is mob mentality, which is a phenomenon in which a person becomes someone they are not because of the influence of a large group’s behavior. A town was created in which tradition is so important the they kill for it. Some literary devices that show that are tradition being questioned, tradition needs to be followed, blindly following tradition, finally tradition only being questioned by the victim. Ways tradition was questioned in the story the lottery were by tessi in which says, “It is not fair pg1”. She probably only questions it because she is the victim. If it had not ben her she probably would not have questioned it or she would of but as known, she