Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“Tradition is a prison with majority opinion the modern jailer” is a quote from Henry S. Haskins. The meaning of this quote is that traditions are sometimes followed by opinions of change, like why do they carry on with the tradition if they don't even remember why they started it? Then when nobody has the courage to speak up about change to the tradition, they continue with it and it becomes the problem of today. In the realistic fiction novel The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is about the main character Mrs. Hutchison who is a former victim of a tradition the town has held for years and In a result of her winning the “lottery.” Mrs. Hutchinson ends up being stoned to death by a crowd of 300 people who threw rocks at here. The symbolism of The Lottery is the happy enviroment , black wooden box, and the black dot these are essential for the message which is a way of telling old tradition die out without even dying. The lottery portrays a serene happy environment. Right in the beginning they make and imagery of a happy town.“ The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny with the freshness of a full-summer day. The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (92).The text is trying to pursue a happy, beautiful environment until it comes crashing down.

The lottery is a tradition that has continued on for quite some time now, the crowds react to the events more than more than act on the occurring events. “ Mr.Summers spoke frequently about getting a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box ¨(93) .The text exclaimed that the townspeople didn't want to upset the tradition. But in reality the village people were terrified of the box that bring out the hard truth about the town. Clearly villagers are tired of going through the same routine and question if there life is going to be taken or are taking someone