Communities Traditions in The Lottery and The Village Essay

A Communities Tradition

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition (Henry James). Traditions are formed from actions or activities that people do as a group. Examples of this are family things you do together every Thanksgiving, or something you do as a group of friends at a specific time every year. Shirley Jacksons The Lottery and M. Night Shaymalans The Village are two stories that portray tradition in a community setting. A difference between the two stories is that The Lottery displays a tradition of sacrifice, and The Village, is focused around a tradition of fear of the unknown. Aside from the type of tradition, most of M. Night Shaymalans characters are unaware of their participation in a tradition, where Shirley Jacksons are fully aware of the tradition and its history. Shaymalan and Jackson express the theme of tradition differently in their stories The Village and The Lottery; yet they both express that following traditions blindly is not only dangerous, but also unreasonable.

The most notable difference between Jacksons, and Shaymalans stories is that The Lottery has a tradition of sacrifice, whereas in The Village the elders have the tradition of hiding the outside world from the villagers. Viewers see that the types of traditions are different but the reasons for them are just as important. Jackson and Shaymalan portray reasons for having a tradition in the stories differently. Constantly throughout the story of The Lottery you can see that their tradition of sacrifice is obvious when someone is sacrificed in hope that it will bring better crops for the community. A specific difference between their intentions is that there isnt a group of people in The Lottery that decides what the rules of the tradition are. They dont change or alter how things are done in order to benefit themselves or discriminate towards others. Everybody is a participant and has an equal chance of being the victim. Secrets arent kept and alternative motives arent used to manipulate others, which cannot be said for Shaymalans The Village.

On the contrary, in Shaymalans The Village, not all members of the community are concerned about the group as a whole. The tradition isnt that they are a separate community from the world, but is the tradition of the forest and the bad things. They created the myths and instilled fear to cover up the fact that if people visited the forest freely they may discover the wall that separates them from society. Also, aside from that, the elders in The Village had lied and let everyone believe they followed their traditions for reasons other then what they were meant for. Village members believed it was to protect them from the bad things, when really it was to not expose them to the real world. Both of the stories differ in their use of a tradition because in The Lottery community members follow the tradition of sacrifice, and in The Village, community members follow a tradition out of fear.

Another difference between the two stories is the awareness of the community members in the traditions. Though people may think that both stories show everyone being involved at first glance, once the true meanings are revealed its obvious that this isnt the case. In the story The Lottery, you can see that everyone is usually involved in participating and continuing the tradition. Everybody has an equal chance of being selected in the lottery and ultimately being killed/sacrificed. Equality and awareness of a tradition cannot be said for Shaymalans The Village. In M. Night Shaymalans The Village, only the elders truly knew the meaning of the tradition and why the members of their community needed to follow it. Where everybody in Jacksons community was aware of their role and why they followed their tradition, for the most part, only the founders of the village knew.

Themes are universal and the same one can be used in many different stories. This is shown through both The Village and The Lottery because they have a similar theme of traditions. Each community follows traditions that were passed down from their elders, and follow them as if they were rules. People may question why they are practicing traditions without fully knowing why the tradition exists, but regardless they still act as a part of the community and do as everyone else does. Traditions have the ability to blind people of what is really happening because people become accustomed to them and consequentially dont know any different. In Jacksons, The Lottery, the tradition is that the community randomly chooses a person to be sacrificed for the greater good of the community. They do this because it is said that lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. Once a person is chosen for the sacrifice, stones are thrown at them by people of the society until he or she is dead. The village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous tradition can be when people follow it blindly. This is a very unethical situation and is only followed because this has been a tradition of the families and members of the community and they dont know anything different.

Similar blindness of peoples actions is shown in Shaymalans The Village. Members of the community follow rules set by the elders of the village without truly knowing why. They are given reasons to why they should or should not do something, but are never truly given proof or evidence of why this is the right way to live. The villagers are to get rid of the color red, and not visit the forest because itll upset them. Though this is what the eldest say is the reason for not entering the forest, it is really that they dont want anybody to discover the true world outside of the forest. Fear of the creatures in the forest is what causes the villagers to follow the tradition blindly. The fact that people of each community follow traditions blindly is a direct example of how tradition is a major theme in both of Shaymalan, and Jacksons stories. This same example displays how following traditions blindly can be dangerous and unethical.

Both Jackson and Shaymalan use the theme of tradition in their stories The Lottery and The Village. Even though the type of tradition followed in their stories is different, its the overall concept of a traditions flaw; which is the importance that tradition plays in their stories. The reason this is so important is because when tradition is first looked at in these stories the viewer may draw a different conclusion than after they apply some analysis towards it. Sometimes the outside doesnt always reflect the deeper meaning.