Who Is Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Tradition is a way in which anybody can express their beliefs and creativity in any way they want. In the short story, The Lottery, Shirley Jackson shows how blindly following tradition can sometimes be atrocious to morality. Every year, there’s a lottery held to decide the next sacrifice to the gods. It was the sunny morning of June 27th; people of a small town were gathered in the square of the village. In this small village, only two hours are needed to conduct the lottery while other villages need days, for they had larger populations. The director of the small town’s lottery was Mr.Summers. Mr.Summers follows the tradition of the lottery without questioning the purpose. Mr.Summers blindly follows the tradition of the lottery and shows doubt about the intention of the lottery. Before Mr.Summers commences with the lottery, he must set up the box and talk about the lottery. Men are hesitant to help with setting the box up because they are afraid of the ‘power’ it has. “Guess we better get started, get this over with…”(105). Mr.Summers also is scared of the lottery and wants to finish it as quickly as possible. He feels as if the lottery is pointless at times and his modest tone tells the reader that it is unimportant to

The box had been splintered badly along the side because of the carelessness of the villagers over the years. The chips of wood that used to be used were now paper slips. “So much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded…”(104). As time passed by, the lottery was less of an importance to the village, therefore the original tradition slowly faded away. Even after all of the changes made in the tradition, the lottery was consequently as powerful as it always had been. Mr.Summers never thought about why the lottery tradition was important, for he was ‘blinded’ by the sheer power of the lottery