The Role of Tradition in “The Lottery” Throughout time, tradition has played a key role in all culture’s lives. They shape the way a culture lives and interacts with the world around them. Traditions bring one another together and it is a time to enjoy each other’s presence. Traditions are carried out because that is what has been done in times passed and that is what people view as the right thing to do. Traditions have been passed down from generation, to generation, to generation. It is this repetition that keeps these traditions alive today. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, tradition plays a key role in keeping one town happy, and peaceful. The lottery occurs every year on June 27. It consists of all the townspeople choosing a slip of paper from a box. If your paper has a mark on it, you are the one who will be stoned to death that year. Although the lottery may be a little morally unjust, it is still a tradition, and traditions are hard to brake. The lottery in the town is the backbone of the community; it not only serves as a day of socialization but also one may see it as a sacrificial offering.The lottery for the town brings a day of conversation and happiness. The boys run around and gather rocks. The girls talk to one another and the woman “ . . . greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands” (634). The men gather, “ . . . surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes” (634). The lottery is used to bring people together and is viewed like any other fun filled town event, “The lottery was conducted - as were the square dances, the teen-age club, the Halloween program - by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities” (634). During the time of Mrs. Hutchinson’s stoning people were having a good time and enjoying themselves, &#...
