Traditions in The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

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Shirley Jackson's story, The Lottery is about a group of towns people who meet every year on the 27th of June. On this day a stoning takes place, as it washes away the sins of everyone that lived in the village. However, should the tradition of the stoning be changed when it becomes your time?

On this day every year "the people of the village began to gather in the square, around ten o'clock" (Jackson) to prepare for the stoning. This event would take about "two hours as there were only about three hundred people" (Jackson). Men, women and children participated in this tradition of stoning. It was a very simple plan as to who would be stoned to death. It consisted on the exact number of people in the village as to how many pieces of paper would need to be made to put into the "black box" (Jackson), but one of the pieces of paper would have a black dot on it. This black dot would determine who would be stoned in this traditional manner.

Mr. Summers was responsible for this event as he had the "time and energy to devote to civic events" (Jackson). He stirred the pa...

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