The dominant theme is traditional. There is many evidence that it is traditional for example the villagers would not change the black box from years ago. In this story the villagers didn't want to change. For example in page 8 the text says “People ain’t the way they used to be.” The villager that said this is trying to say that we need to change the way they do the lottery. Another great example is just the lottery itself. The villagers don't have to do the lottery it's a choice they have and they choose to make it a tradition.
