Tradition in Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

We all have traditions in our lives, but most of them vary between us. Where we are the same is that we have a genetic history of traditions. So what defines a tradition? A way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, culture, etc., for a long time. An inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior. Also a belief or story or a relating to the past that are commonly accepted. This information should help us to understand that we are more tradition oriented that we think. Since the beginning of time there have been traditions that exists in our genetic makeup. From the mammals, animals, and fish that migrate every year to humans celebrating the changing of the seasons or making sacrifices to their Gods. They all are traditions that are followed year to year and generation to generation, most altering only slightly through the years. This helps to establish a tradition of traditions in all species.

As dawn appears on the horizon on the winter solstice we see a great Incan pyramid. Around the base the people gather, they are waiting for the sun to reach the holy alter atop the ancient pyramid. Strapped to that alter is a young maiden who is eerily calm. She is drugged and awaits the glory of her fate. She accepts this fate because this tradition brings great harvests and fortunes to the village, also much wealth and honor to her family. These traditions may seem abhorrent to us in our modern society, and most people do not comprehend how anyone could except something so savage. This is similar to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Where a town holds a lottery every year, the objective of this lottery is to stone one o...

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...t happening can make the holiday tradition hard to enjoy, so hopefully we adapt and change to make the gathering more enjoyable and less stressful by altering the tradition.

Tradition seems to always been in our genetic makeup, but how we choose to follow these traditions is up to us as evolved humans. We can follow blindly the traditions that were created by others before us or we can evaluate and adjust to make the traditions work for our current lifestyles and hopeful open and informed minds. The tradition of traditions will continue on regardless of our evolution, and we can hope they will be positive traditions. So can hope the world will be a kinder, gentler place to live.

Works Cited

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery” ENG. 111, Blackboard. February 18, 2014.

Benigni, Roberto. “Life is Beautiful” Cecchi Gorigroup Tiger Cinematografica. 1997. Film