The Lottery Literary Essay

Traditions are often continued without reason or thought; it's irrational. In "The Lottery", a short story by Shirley Jackson, there is a town who perfectly depicts that. Year after year the town's people hold a lottery where they draw to find out which household wins the honour of being stoned to death. They then select a member from that household and stone them without thinking anything of it; the entire town takes part including the children. Pieces of the story prove that the tradition will continue for some time, although it will eventually fade.

There is evidence that it will continue to occur for a few years after. The biggest piece of proof is that the town just does this over and over without thinking much of it. They even plan the event so that the people can "get home for noon dinner" (147). The people clearly don't believe that it is a horrible act, for even the children are "stuff[ing] their pockets full of stones" (147). Further more, people continue the tradition blindly. They have lost knowledge of when and why it started. They have even lost much of the original paraphernalia.

Clearly the tradition will continue, but it will eventually come to an end. In previous lotteries people just owned up to it and were stoned; now Tessie claims that Bill didn't get enough "time to choose the paper he wanted" (154). The people speak of other towns that have "already quit lotteries" (152). The lotteries are now more tense and edgy, whereas they used to be...honourable, more or less.


For now the lottery will continue, although in later days this tradition will cease to exist. The duration of time the lottery will continue to be held is entirely up to the people holding it. Perhaps it will stop in 2 years, maybe 15, maybe 100. But it will eventually end.