Sacrifice In The Lottery

In many traditions taking someone's life can be classified as a sacrifice and not as a murder. According to webster dictionary a sacrifice is defined as, “destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else”(Webster [Def1]). This act or sacrifice can be done on objects or on humans. In some instances, adults take their own lives in hope for better days. Children are even offered as a sacrifice, sold or oppressed by ancient rules. In Bessie Head’s, Looking for a Rain God, the sacrifice of a child was crucial for a family's sanity. Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, proves that tradition does not hold back for anyone. In these works the idea of sacrifice, tradition and murder was an overarching theme. These works prove that tradition …show more content…
Everyone in the town became anxious. The novel states, “ ‘Well, now.’ Mr. Summers said soberly, ‘guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work. Anybody ain't here’ ”(Jackson 2)? This demonstrates that the sacrifice was a normality in this village. Mr.Summers was eager to get started with the lottery because the sooner it began the sooner the village can return to normal and forget that the lottery had even happened. Eventually the lottery started and the unlucky family was the Hutchinson's family. Bill Hutchinson’s wife became very defensive. It states that, “Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly. Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. ‘You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!’ ”(Jackson 3). Tessie Hutchinson the mother in the family was the second to pick the paper with the black dot. The black dot represented the sacrifice that you make for the benefit of the other people in the town. Mr Summers was eager to proceed with the rest of the ancient ritual of stoning the person who selects the slip with the black dot. The novel states, “ ‘Let's finish quickly.’ ...Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones... Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to …show more content…
This novel highlighted the gruesome truths in a tribe's existence. Human sacrifice is a hard pill to swallow however when children become involved this sacrifice becomes categorized as gruesome and senseless murder. The novel begins by saying, “The rains were late that year”(Head 1), this statement can be used as a foreshadow of the desperation that was to come in the novel. The villagers who relied heavily on farming, rain was crucial in their survival and if that meant sacrificing something in order for the rain to come they would do it. The novel goes on by saying “the family sat down in despair, waiting and waiting. Their hopes had run so high”(Head 2). While waiting for the rain the family tried to remember ancient saying and ancient rumors of how to make the rain fall. In the novel it states, “ Finally, an ancient memory stirred in the old man, Mokgobja...he had been witness to a rain-making ceremony...There was, he said, a certain rain god who accepted only the sacrifice of the bodies of children”(Head 2). Without much hesitation the village agreed on sacrificing the two girls who were just running around playing innocently. To the villagers surprise the sacrifice was not substantial and did not yield rain. The story states that times got even harder, “After it was all over and the bodies of the two little girls had been spread