Tradition In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

The Lottery

*Happy vintage jingle*

“What is it that keeps you going,

Through all the troubles and trief? the smile that says you’re winning, and hitting back at life. that very special moment

When you come out on top, its winning that keeps you going it’s winning that won’t let you stop. that's why we’re goin lotto!”

-Go Lotto (1979)

These are lyrics from an Australian ad for the lottery, they depict the same image I’m sure everyone else has of what the lottery is essentially. Lottery by definition is taking a chance to receive a “prize” or “reward”, in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” the reader’s perspective and expectations of what the lottery really is. In this short story, Jackson writes about a small midwestern town that has a very

The most likely reason that the villagers don’t see a problem in participating in murdering one of their own at this annual lottery is probably because of tradition. I think our perception of what's right and wrong is relative to what our exposure is. What’s been normalized here is that a human sacrifice is a horrific thing, however to these people, since they don’t know any better, it is just like another day. This paired with the incentive of good crops make things like murdering your mother just a January 27th. Amy Griffin elaborates on this in her article about tradition and violence. She said “At one point in the village's history, the lottery represented a grave experience, and all who participated understood the profound meaning of the tradition. But as time passed, the villagers began to take the ritual lightly. They endure it almost as automatons—"actors" anxious to return to their mundane, workaday lives. Old Man Warner, the only one who seems to recall the seriousness of the occasion, complains that Mr. Summers jokes with everybody.” (Griffin, 1). People just seem to brush it off as if it’s nothing, and I really admire Jackson for how elaborate this short story