The Significance Of Sacrifice In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

(Introduction) “The Lottery,” a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a woman who has been selected for sacrifice by a lottery drawing. Tessie Hutchinson, and the rest of her town, are unfeeling about how the annual sacrifice affects the selected. However, they carry on with their tradition year after year, with no intent to make changes to meet modern day morals and needs. “The Lottery” is about blindly following tradition, the awareness of how cruel a practice sacrificing is, and how one’s mindset can change when they are the chosen one. (1) When one blindly follows tradition, they become unmindful. In “The Lottery,” the citizens have practiced the ceremony for as long as anyone can remember. They see that sacrificing by stoning is the only way to handle their situation of a small food supply. However, it is obvious that there are more humane ways to handle the situation. This could have been the only way many years ago, but now people only continue it because they blindly follow the tradition.
Naturally, the concept of stoning seems immoral and cruel, but the citizens accepted the practice and went by tradition. Even children stoned their parents. Had someone visited the town as an unaccustomed guest, they would be shocked by the practice and lack of emotion and meaning for the person who was sacrificed. Although tradition is important and deserves a great deal of respect, change is the only thing that can lead to success. As the human race evolves, certain traditions must change to accommodate the circumstances. Tessie Hutchinson came to the realization of what kind of practice stoning is once she was chosen, screaming, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right”