Examples Of Ritual In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The blind following of ritual in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is shocking by the way the villagers participate in the lottery without realizing what is actually happening, but no more so than the mindless rituals noticed by modern society. Although some villagers raise questions about the lottery, they all go along with it. Thus, they become unthinking members of a herd, forfeiting their individuality and sending Tessie Hutchinson to her death. I believe that society had become so used to violence that they were numb to it and thought it was something they had to do. At first, the reader is given a title that makes the reader believe that someone is going to win something such as money, although it is far from winning anything. The lottery is a sacrifice and is a tradition rather than a ritual in this town, but out of respect and fear, the villagers are willing to involve themselves in an act of violence. There’s no way to prove this tradition really works other than to keep on with the way things have been. A theme of “The Lottery” is the blind following of tradition without looking at the consequences of such actions.
The people of the town believe in old customs that someone must be sacrificed once a year. Slips of paper are made for each …show more content…
The villagers don’t seem to know why they are doing the lottery, but go with it only because it is the tradition and has been for many years. Sacrifices only for the purpose of pleasing a god were required according to the villagers of the town. Jackson implies that the reason the town is sacrificing death to the gods is to receive blessing for their fruitful crops. As most of the people today, we see these practices to be unacceptable. Another town decided to stop this ritual and at the time of this story, had not lost their crops, but there’s no way to know if they ever