“The Lottery” response: Traditions that have become outdated or obselete.

“In this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (Jackson). In the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a story about a village that conducts what would be considered a cruel tradition each year amongst the villagers. The village tradition involves a drawing amongst each head of household and their family members to determine who wins the lottery each year. The drawing is completely random and everyone in the village must participate. Most readers would assume that when someone wins the lottery they are being rewarded but in the case of this village.

A villager winning the lottery results in death, specifically the other villagers stone him or her to death. This story represents the dark side of Humanity where the black box represented death instead of prosperity. Mr. Summers suggested that a new box should be made, since the one they had was old and worn out. The villagers claimed that the box represented tradition, but they did not really take very good care of it, leaving one to wonder if the real reason was that the villagers did not want to build something that might eventually lead to their death.

 “They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, ‘that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery. ‘Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while” (Jackson). Another villager tells Old Man Varner that other villages are considering ending the lottery drawings. Old Man Varner then goes on to say that those villagers are crazy to end the tradition. He then compares it to society becoming cavemen or jobless. Old Man Varner is a prime example of why the tradition is so disturbing. As a reader, I can see that he is a man of tradition and believes in keeping the lottery exactly the same and any change would be catastrophic to the village. Author shares with her audience the reality and how traditions of people can sometimes be overlooked even though they are considered immorally wrong.