The Lottery

From the beginning of the civilization on earth, people have many different superstitions, or beliefs about life. People believe if they were to do certain things, they would have good luck. Some of these superstitions go on for such long periods of time and people do them so often that they become traditions or rituals. Also, people who conform to old rituals and traditions often lose their minds and commit vicious actions against others out of tradition. For instance, some Hindu communities used to immolate a virgin to satisfy Goddess Kali from their beliefs that this sacrifice would bring luck and prosperity for them. In her short story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson is trying to point out that kind of evidences which people do in the name of tradition or ritual by describing a small town where the people have been taught to believe that in order for their crop to be abundant for the year, some individual have to be sacrificed.
The ritualistic characteristics of...