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Sacrifice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Sacrifice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
Tradition is the backbone of every culture and civilization. It helps to pass the beliefs, philosophies, and customs of societies from generation to generation. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson describes about a tradition of an annual lottery draw, participated by the people of a village to insure a bountiful harvest. Usually in lotteries, the winners get something special that makes them happy. But in this story, the tradition of the lottery is that whoever is the winner is stoned to death to get a good crop on coming harvest time. Though tradition is an important part of any culture, but this story is told about a tradition where the villagers are murdering an innocent person. This tradition of human sacrifice is totally unlawful, which is …show more content…
The Sati is one of those traditions. It was considered the highest expression of wifely devotion to a dead husband. This is an ancient funeral custom where a woman burns to death on her husband’s funeral pyre and become a Sati (suttee). However, other forms of Sati exist, including being buried alive with the husband's corpse and drowning. It is believed that Sati will enter heaven, become the goddess and built a statue in memory of her sacrifice. The term Sati is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, who self-immolated because she was unable to prove her chastity. That’s why she jumped on the fire and proved her chastity to her husband Shiva. Since that time the Hindu widows have started to practice Sati custom. This custom was first practiced in 510 CCE at Eran, an ancient city in the modern state of Madhya Pradesh. As the custom began to grow in popularity, the number of seats started to get an increase. The British East India Company recorded that the total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 - 1828 was 8,135; another source gives the number of 7,941 from 1815 - 1828, an average of 618 documented incidents per year (Hawley 118). In the late 1980s, the British government banned and imposed the Prevention of Sati Act and as of now the practice is considered illegal, and is therefore punishable by the law. But still there are some societies where Sati tradition continues to occur. So even though the practice itself is banned, the glorification of Sati lives on. But this tradition of killing innocent widows should be banned strictly so that no widow has to sacrifice her life in this super station based

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