What Are The Similarities Between The Lottery And The Village

The Oxford Language Dictionary states that “The transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way” is the definition of tradition. In the texts “The Lottery” and The Village that were written by Shirley Jaxon and M Night Shyamalan demonstrate how blindly following traditions was the downfall of both societies. For some, the unpredictability of not having a ritual or tradition can create uncertainty. But blindly following traditions can create a dangerous repetitive cycle but change can create new possibilities and greater things to come.

Blindly following traditions can become extremely dangerous because it can lead to the continuation of harmful beliefs and practices. An example is

This is a great example of how they were sacrificing people's lives just to keep the village isolated and separated from the outside world even though it could have been avoided with a little preservation. This was ironic because the leaders of the village wanted to create an isolated world where no one important in their life would be harmed or killed. They did this because every single leader of the village had something bad happen to someone close to them so they thought they could escape it by creating an isolated village based on lies. An example of this is when Noah died they used his death as an excuse to continue the lies of those who we shall not speak of. Another example of the continuation of bad practices is in The Lottery. In the

In the village, the tradition of not leaving it had stayed the same for so long and it was very frowned upon to even go near the edges of the village let alone leave it. But over time more and more people started dying and the need to leave the village for medicine to save the injured became even more dier until eventually, the blind girl left to go find medicine. Sending someone out of the village was a huge risk for the village leaders because they had to risk their secrets that they had worked so hard to keep. But after the blind girl came back from getting the medicine not knowing anything was different the village leaders realized the risk they had taken had paid off. The blind girl managed to get the medicine without the village people knowing of any secrets and the wounded were mended. In the lottery, the continuation of their tradition was the complete opposite of changing the tradition for the good of the people. The people of the town could have just changed their traditions just like the other villages had and no one would have questioned it because no one would be harmed. But instead, they decided to keep stoning every year just because they didn't want to break the tradition. This just goes to show that sometimes keeping traditions that have been made can in a way start self-inducing harm to those who made it and their future