Many people would die to win the lottery; in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson you would do anything NOT to win this lottery. This annual lottery reveals the negative aspects of this town’s Tradition, Savagery, Barbarism, and cold-heartedness. In this paper I will show why this town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because of the accepting wickedness that can be shown. Why does the town follow this foolish tradition? Throughout “The Lottery” the narrator tells that the people do not remember how the lottery began, and that some of the older people believe the lottery has changed over the years, that now people just want to get it over with as fast as possible. The reader can infer that the story suggests that by having the lottery each year, a human sacrifice to unseen forces in the universe or gods, which …show more content…
For example “Mr. Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, … Bill held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.” This is his wife and he had no problem telling everybody it was her knowing that she will shortly die. The most cold-hearted part was when someone made sure that her son, little Davey, also had small rocks to throw at his mother. The town doesn’t care who was picked they just want death to the person and everybody involved can take part. Old man Wagoner could believe that the lottery helps with crops. But for everybody else they just do it out of blindness and evilness. This town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because the lottery is so ingrained in their culture that they cannot let go of it, and they don’t view killing an innocent neighbor as wrong but just “another clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer