Circus of Suicide
Mathew Huffman
ENG-102-05
Instructor Benchoff
2/11/13
Tradition’s Bloody Footsteps The Lottery takes place in a small town with a population of three hundred people, but that number is starting to grow faster. The town holds an annual lottery with the purpose to pick a random person to be stoned to death. Through the Lottery’s story of unmerciful killing for tradition, a symbolic parallel emerges that is frightfully close to human beings today. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (258.) The town was a beautiful place, filled with every day people. The town had the Lottery annually, on June 27th, and everyone would gather with stones and draw names from a black box, to see who would be stoned to death this year. The children all gathered for this event, which was esteemed by most; little boys, little girls, all gathering to kill. Maybe this was all started by a bloody vendetta, or maybe this was a game like the coliseum for the Romans, which led to a society of no morals, and their demise. Tradition can lead humans to do some odd things. Human beings following their ancestor’s tradition have caused many people to lose their lives to help “appease” gods, demons, tormentors, and supernatural beings. This act of tradition, following what we have been told for hundreds of years, has been branded into our intellect. Human beings love feeling comfortable, and following traditions and things they know is what make them feel comfortable. Through this, the lottery achieves to symbolize our human behavior. A father did not want to kill an innocent human, and neither did a little girl. It was the act of tradition which drove them to do so. Some people speak out against these grotesque acts, but are quickly mollified by people that are eager to follow tradition’s bloody footsteps. The Lottery displays a form of the phenomenon Diffusion of
ENG-102-05
Instructor Benchoff
2/11/13
Tradition’s Bloody Footsteps The Lottery takes place in a small town with a population of three hundred people, but that number is starting to grow faster. The town holds an annual lottery with the purpose to pick a random person to be stoned to death. Through the Lottery’s story of unmerciful killing for tradition, a symbolic parallel emerges that is frightfully close to human beings today. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (258.) The town was a beautiful place, filled with every day people. The town had the Lottery annually, on June 27th, and everyone would gather with stones and draw names from a black box, to see who would be stoned to death this year. The children all gathered for this event, which was esteemed by most; little boys, little girls, all gathering to kill. Maybe this was all started by a bloody vendetta, or maybe this was a game like the coliseum for the Romans, which led to a society of no morals, and their demise. Tradition can lead humans to do some odd things. Human beings following their ancestor’s tradition have caused many people to lose their lives to help “appease” gods, demons, tormentors, and supernatural beings. This act of tradition, following what we have been told for hundreds of years, has been branded into our intellect. Human beings love feeling comfortable, and following traditions and things they know is what make them feel comfortable. Through this, the lottery achieves to symbolize our human behavior. A father did not want to kill an innocent human, and neither did a little girl. It was the act of tradition which drove them to do so. Some people speak out against these grotesque acts, but are quickly mollified by people that are eager to follow tradition’s bloody footsteps. The Lottery displays a form of the phenomenon Diffusion of
Citations: Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Backpack Literature. New York: Farrar, 1991. 258-266.