Ethical Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
Change is a great and a necessary evil. Remember the old saying, “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.”? The very meaning of this quote serves as a dangerous roadblock, which has inflicted ignorance and impeded advancement throughout human history. Events like the Holocaust in the 1900s, segregation of white and blacks during the mid-1900s, and the denial of women’s civil rights in the 1900s all serve as prime consequences of humans not willing to change. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, she use the black battered box as a way to illustrate that human kind must continue to evolve and not always conform to unethical traditions. This is important because if the town members evaluated their beliefs and did not conform to unethical traditions; traditions which subjected people to succumb to fear, perform barbaric activities, and
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Thus leaving these people powerless to break.
According to the story, the town’s people have no complete understanding of the origin of lottery. They were not aware how the lottery was run compared to recent lotteries. This proves that the villager’s blind faith in the lottery portrays the dangers of fervor; not challenging to change or remove unethical traditions. During the story, some of the town’s people talk about how other towns are abolishing the lottery process. However, still no one challenges the lottery process because it may result in an individual being exiled from the town. It is stated clearly in the text that, “every year, after the lottery Mr. Summers began talking about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade without anything being done”. A black box older than Old
Thus leaving these people powerless to break.
According to the story, the town’s people have no complete understanding of the origin of lottery. They were not aware how the lottery was run compared to recent lotteries. This proves that the villager’s blind faith in the lottery portrays the dangers of fervor; not challenging to change or remove unethical traditions. During the story, some of the town’s people talk about how other towns are abolishing the lottery process. However, still no one challenges the lottery process because it may result in an individual being exiled from the town. It is stated clearly in the text that, “every year, after the lottery Mr. Summers began talking about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade without anything being done”. A black box older than Old