Tradition in The Lottery Essay

The Lottery

Have you ever realized how important tradition is in a community and how it could affect the outcome of another individuals life? Because of tradition, a community could be uplifted or torn down. When it comes to tradition, things were done a certain way and they remained that way because this is all that the people knew and accepted from the oldest down to the youngest members of the town. The Lottery tradition caused the head of the households to pull names from the black box. The traditional routine of the lottery in this town is so prevalent that it is utterly important for them to start by ten and have it completed by dinnertime. They seem to look at it as a parallel to shopping for groceries. More importantly, the traditional routine, callous attitudes and apathy to murder are the types of traditional themes that go on in this story.

First, one of the traditional routines that would fall in the place of The Lottery is when it comes to tradition of the towns people, they see it as just another event, like square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program in their lives(Jackson). Furthermore, one of the traditions is that the men always attend first and the women and children last. It is important to involve the children and teaching them this practice as well. Thus, this tradition was so routine, that the children, before the lottery began, gathered to choose which stones they would use during the process of the stoning of the unfortunate individual that chose the piece of paper with the black spot. Ironically, in this case, the tradition was not to show care or concern, but for a mere routine obligation. Sadly, this tradition will be continued in the future. The unsettledness of this story has become so routine that everything seemed to be done without thought.

Secondly, the disregard of the callous attitudes of the community. For example, author Shirley Jackson showed in The Lottery, the attitudes of the towns people as Mr. Summers had began to read the names of the heads of families first. The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions: most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, and not looking around. How sad is that? To have no regard for a human life makes one think what kind of people are they dealing with. These people had become so accustomed to losing individuals in this manner that it did not bother them at all. The attitude of the towns people was the type of attitude that one would have if they were attending a carnival. They were excited to get there; and yet, they were more enthusiastic for it to end.

Third, and most ironic, is the tradition of apathy to murder by the people. When the pieces of paper were pulled out of the black box, it is astonishing to see the emotions of all the women: how just for a moment, no one moved, until all the slips of paper were opened. Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once, asking, "Who is it?" "Who's got it?" (Jackson) The women acted as though someone had won a real lottery and not concerned about who would actually be put to death that day by getting the black dot. Not only that, once the individual that pulled the misfortunate piece of paper that identifies them, the towns people seemed to get excited. They actually wanted to rush to stone the individual without second thought. As aforementioned, these people wanted this to end abruptly so that they could get back in time to eat dinner.

As aforementioned, in the thesis statement: traditions can either make or break a community. In the case of The Lottery, some traditions should never be so. The idea to have a gathering every year in order to take the life of an individual just to decrease the population is senseless. Furthermore, to have no remorse or any compassion towards the whole situation is regrettable. The Lottery teaches that just because something has been a tradition for many years in a town does not make it proper. At some point, people should stand together to stand against that which they know is not right.

As a result, this story had many traditions that should have been done away with a long time ago. One of the traditions that should have been done away with is the traditional apathy to murder. The idea that every year people would meet up to pull tickets to see who would be stoned to death and the callous attitudes about the whole ordeal is remarkably preposterous. The traditional stoning of any individual is very pointless and insignificant. Certain types of traditions, which people cling to, should come to an end at some point. The Lottery teaches a person to not just stand around and do nothing. When someone sees that, something is not exactly the means to the end, at some point it is time for people to stand up, do something about it, and say no. More importantly, it teaches one must stand for something in life or they will fall for anything in the end. Fortunately, in todays society, we do not tolerate such contemptible and undignified type practices. We are a stronger society with morals and principles.

Works Cited

Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. Literature, Reading, Reacting, Writing.

Ohio: Cengage, 2009. 443- 449