The Importance Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson 246). “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson describes about a tradition of an annual lottery draw, participated by the people of a village to insure a bountiful harvest. Usually in lotteries, the winners get something special that makes them happy. But in this story, the tradition of the lottery is that whoever is the winner is stoned to death to get a good crop on coming harvest time. We know that tradition is an important part of any culture. But this story is telling about a tradition where the villagers are murdering an innocent person, though the rationale behind this tradition has been lost over time. This tradition of human sacrifice is totally unlawful, which is based on superstition. This shouldn’t be participated by any villagers. …show more content…
In this story, the tradition of drawing lottery has been practiced for over seventy years by the villagers. Every June they held the lottery though this tradition is actually meaningless. Some young people tried to stop this tradition. In the story we see that Mr. and Mrs. Adams suggested to the Old Man Warner, who is the oldest man in the village that some other villages have already stopped this tradition. Then Warner said “…………. We’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery” (Jackson 246). Old Man Warner keeps strong belief in superstition. That’s why he wants the tradition of lottery to be continued. But this unlawful tradition should be stopped so that no one has to sacrifice their lives