Going to the corner store to buy a lottery ticket is the routine of millions of people across Canada, but what if winning meant death? Tradition is more important to some than others. The citizens of a small village in the short story “The Lottery” value tradition enough that they would kill one of their own every year to refrain from breaking it. To these people, human sacrifice seems like going to the doctor, or doing your taxes, rather than murder; it is a yearly task that they want to get done and over with so they can go back to their everyday lives. Tradition has made it not just acceptable, but one is shunned if he or she speaks against the ceremony. The article “The Practice of Human Sacrifice” explains why this gruesome tradition exists in the first place.
The citizens of this small village perform this tradition every year without certainly knowing why they do it. In a study conducted by G.R. Stephenson in 1967 a group of monkeys were placed in a room with bananas on top of a ladder. Every time a monkey attempted to climb the ladder they were showered with ice cold water. Eventually they did not dare climb the ladder. A monkey was replaced with a new one …show more content…
Human sacrifice is not just an ancient practice, it still occurs in modern day society, “the suicide bombers of Palestine and the 11 September terrorists are also modern-day sacrifices” (Parker-Pearson, 2011, p. 4). The citizens of the village carry out the lottery every year in order to make the corn crops grow, they do not know how it works but they do it anyways, because it is tradition. The people of this fictional society are growing wearier of the ritual as time goes on. Some neighboring villages have stopped doing the lottery all together. Some traditions are not so easily forgotten, however, how many modern day traditions in the future will seem
The citizens of this small village perform this tradition every year without certainly knowing why they do it. In a study conducted by G.R. Stephenson in 1967 a group of monkeys were placed in a room with bananas on top of a ladder. Every time a monkey attempted to climb the ladder they were showered with ice cold water. Eventually they did not dare climb the ladder. A monkey was replaced with a new one …show more content…
Human sacrifice is not just an ancient practice, it still occurs in modern day society, “the suicide bombers of Palestine and the 11 September terrorists are also modern-day sacrifices” (Parker-Pearson, 2011, p. 4). The citizens of the village carry out the lottery every year in order to make the corn crops grow, they do not know how it works but they do it anyways, because it is tradition. The people of this fictional society are growing wearier of the ritual as time goes on. Some neighboring villages have stopped doing the lottery all together. Some traditions are not so easily forgotten, however, how many modern day traditions in the future will seem