Misleading Tradition In The Lottery

Misleading tradition In the short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, people in the village gather around for the annual lottery. In the end, Tessie, the wife of Bill Hutchinson, is the one to receive the black dot on her slip and everyone stones Tessie to death. Readers who read this tragedy may wonder why the community does this brutal event. Originally, the lottery was a sacrifice for the crops to flourish, but as time passed the ritual became a tradition. First off, the original purpose of this brutal event was to sacrifice a person for the corn crops to thrive. A quote in the text is, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (p.22, line 260-261). This supports the raffle was supposed to be offering for prosperous corn crops because the quote says when this annual event is coming the corn will soon be thriving too. If the village people believe the corn crops will flourish after this village activity it means the lottery is an event where they ensure the corn crops will grow by proposing a sacrifice. Furthermore, as time passed the lottery became a tradition. The author states, “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the …show more content…
The original purpose of the is shown when old man warner says, “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” and the reason the people do the lottery now is shown when the author states the people lost most of the ritual. In the beginning this violent activity had a purpose, but people as people continued to do this practice, they started to forget the most important part of it and only did it as a daily routine or exciting activity. Therefore, the people could not see how brutal this event is, they are unaware of their brutal tradition. Who knows when they will ever stop this