The Lottery and Two Kinds - Short Stories Review

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a whole village blindly follows cultural tradition. The oldest man of the village, Old Man Warner, said that there “used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’” (Jackson 4). Jackson alludes the story to the fact that human sacrifices have been made throughout history in order to assure the community of a good crop season. The “villagers had forgotten the ritual” but they “still remembered to use stones” and the allusion to the fact that human sacrifices were made to ensure a lavish harvest suggests that the reason behind the lottery was to offer the community hope for a good crop season (7). The children were “guarding” their “stones against the raids of other boys” indicating that the youngest generation took the tradition as a joke because the meaning behind it no longer existed (1). The oldest generation, the parents, had failed to pass on the ritual and the “paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago” indicating that passing on traditions without background and meaning of the ritual creates ignorance, which is displayed through the children treating the lottery as if it were a game (1). The parents are supposed to be mentors to the children who are initiates, but are failing because they are enforcing the idea that it is acceptable to blindly follow traditions, when in reality, it is not. The children are innocent because they do not have enough knowledge to understand that the lottery is murder, whereas the teenagers are stuck between a mentor and an initiate because they have enough knowledge and experience of the lottery to begin questioning the tradition. Mr. Adams explains that “over in the north village” people are “talking of giving up the lottery” indicating that the village has let go of tradition in order to create new culture that will allow them to live better. Old Man Warner was disgusted by this and said, “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them” showing that he cannot let go of the past because he is attached to the tradition of the lottery (4).

This shows that the old generation of mentors are caught on how the towns have always been, and the fact that traditions are changing in other towns due to the initiates and teenagers realizing that the tradition is cruel. The “box” that represents the tradition is “black” but is now “faded” and it “upsets” people when villagers talk