Outdated Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

"The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, can be seen in many different ways. There are many themes portrayed in this short story. Two of which are: the reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions and following the crowd can have disastrous consequences. The first theme that was illustrated was the reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions. The villagers throughout this story believed that since they had always had the lottery, that they should not change tradition now. One of the villagers even said, "We have always had a lottery as far back as I can remember. I see no reason to end it." If most people have had something a certain way for a long period of time, they are most likely going to be resistant to change it. For example,