The Lottery Vs Dead Man's Path Essay

Growing up in a big family, traditions were what kept our family together. As a child, every first weekend in December was spent at my grandma’s house. It was our traditional craft/tree decorating weekend. All 15 of us grandkids would arrive at grandma’s house filled with excitement and joy. It was at time that we all got to spend catching up with each other and playing. Each year we made a different craft that grandma had planned. From painting ornaments and holiday sweatshirts, to making our own snowmen. After we finished our crafts, it was time to decorate the Christmas tree. That tradition is one of my most fond childhood memories, and will most likely be something that I carry on with my grandchildren someday. Carrying on traditions are, for the most part, something that we as people just go along with because our ancestors have carried it down. For the most part, there is no harm in carrying on traditions as in the case of “Dead Man’s Path.” But there are some traditions that are simply evil and mindlessly followed, as in the case of “The Lottery.” Although “The Lottery” and “Dead Man’s Path” bear some differences, the similarities between the struggle of traditions, and new ways of

“The lottery was conducted-as were the square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program-by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities.” (pg. 390) The townspeople went up one by one and grabbed a piece of paper out the black box. The person that had the circle on their paper was the one to be stoned. The towns people didn’t know the reason why they did this yearly tradition, but they continued to do it just because their families before them had. To them, it didn’t matter if they were committing a murder or not, it was a regular tradition that had never been questioned. At this particular lottery, there was talk about other towns doing away with the