Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines tradition as, an inherited,
established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a
religious practice or a social custom) and the handing down of
information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from
one generation to another without written instruction. If we are to go
by the latter definition , we can understand how traditions are easily
lost. Have you ever played the game telephone? You whisper something in
someone's ear and they whisper it in another person^s ear until it
finally returns back to you and normally what is returned isn't even
close to what you originally whispered into the first person's ear In
Shirley Jackson's short story ,"The Lottery" ,the main theme is how
traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause
dreadful consequences to occur. Jackson uses a lot of symbolism to show
this. The story is set in a small town, ^on the morning of June
27th^(272). It opens with false innocence , using the children building
a rock pile, tricking the reader into a disturbingly unaware state.
The reader almost expects the Lottery to be something wonderful since
the "normal" lottery has the winner getting a prize of a large amount
of money or possesion. Even the story alludes to the innocence ,
explaining how the the town also holds ^square dances, teenage club and
the Halloween program^(273) in the same spot that the lottery is held.
In "the Lottery" we discover that the town-folk use a lottery, to pick
a "winner" to stone to death. The winner is picked using a black box
that has been around for ages, and has even been ^rebuilt with parts
supposedly from the original black box^.(273) Within the box are slips
of paper, enough for the entire town. On one slip of paper is a black
dot for the one lucky winner. Black has always been a symbol for death,
and the color of the box and do...