Tradition is the Guide of the Ignorant In “The Lottery” author Shirley Jackson takes us to a place in which a tradition is passed down generation after generation. However, over the years, the “lottery” has lost any significant meaning and the villagers follow tradition without even knowing why the tradition exists. In this short story, a lottery is held every June 26th of each year. The lottery consists of every man of each household to pick a piece of paper out of a box. One family will be the “chosen” family, which means that each member of the family will then choose another piece of paper from the box. In the end, only one person will be the ultimate “winner.” They will be the one who is stoned to death, and the townspeople will be the one’s to perform this ritual, even though no one is sure why they actually do this each and every year. This blind following of the past traditions leads the reader to discover a universal truth, “Tradition is the guide of the ignorant.” Ignorance means lacking knowledge or being unaware, and the ignorance of the townspeople is demonstrated throughout the entire story. When told by Mr. Adams, “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” (236), Old Man Warner states, “’There’s always been a lottery” (236). In this statement, the reader sees the most ignorant of all excuses for doing anything. This, however, seems normal for the community. Whenever a person is questioned about why they do something unusual, their usual answer is something along the lines of “Because I do it all the time.” This shows ignorance on their part because they cannot even back up what they do with a valid reason, as with the townspeople in this story. Another way in which the Sunakoda 2Townspeople display their ignorance is described earlier in the story, where th...
