“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. In this short story, a village with a population of about 300 does an annual lottery on the 27th of June. However- this is a bad kind of lottery. “Winning” grants you, as it did that year to Tessie Hutchinson, a nice and unpleasant death by the whole village throwing rocks at you. Seeing as this is such a weird and cruel practice, there must be some reason for the villagers doing it. And I claim that the lottery is an ancient ancestral tradition that the villagers don’t want to upset. There are several pieces of evidence in the text to support my claim. For example, the text states that “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the
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Lines 93-94 state that “so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded”. Reading that, this piece of evidence brings up the fact that the villagers don’t know the original purpose of the ritual anymore and are just doing it to uphold the tradition. On lines 255-263, Old Man Warner goes on a rant about how the towns who have given up lotteries are a “Pack of crazy young fools.” At the end of his rant, though, on lines 262-263, Old Man Warner states that “there’s always been a lottery.” The oldest man in town, who has been doing the lottery for 77 years, and has taken 77 chances with death, still thinks that the tradition should be upheld. I think that this evidence definitely supports the claim. I think that the villagers will continue doing the lottery. Unless Old Man Warner dies and the tradition is somehow disbanded because of it, the villagers have upheld their tradition for so long that they will not want to quit now. I wonder, though - if Old Man Warner did die, would the villagers stop doing the lottery, or will they keep doing it because it is an ancient tradition that they don’t want to give
Lines 93-94 state that “so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded”. Reading that, this piece of evidence brings up the fact that the villagers don’t know the original purpose of the ritual anymore and are just doing it to uphold the tradition. On lines 255-263, Old Man Warner goes on a rant about how the towns who have given up lotteries are a “Pack of crazy young fools.” At the end of his rant, though, on lines 262-263, Old Man Warner states that “there’s always been a lottery.” The oldest man in town, who has been doing the lottery for 77 years, and has taken 77 chances with death, still thinks that the tradition should be upheld. I think that this evidence definitely supports the claim. I think that the villagers will continue doing the lottery. Unless Old Man Warner dies and the tradition is somehow disbanded because of it, the villagers have upheld their tradition for so long that they will not want to quit now. I wonder, though - if Old Man Warner did die, would the villagers stop doing the lottery, or will they keep doing it because it is an ancient tradition that they don’t want to give