Old Customs In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

As we approach the future, old customs from history continue to make an appearance in present time. Old customs, fashion, and habits proceed on to the next generation which lead people to the conclusion that history repeats itself. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson demonstrates how society follows rituals from ancient times without fully understanding the meaning behind it. Through families participating in the stone pelting ritual for population control, it continues to illustrate the dehumanization of human culture.

“The Lottery” in the story was set up on June 27th. The whole community would go to the center of the town for the event. It would begin at 10 in the morning and only last for two hours so that the villagers would be able to go home in time for dinner. In the story Jackson writes that, “The lottery was conducted-- as were the square dances the teen club, the Halloween program-by Mr.Summers, who had time to devote to civic activities.”. The head of each family, particularly the men, had to go to the box and pull a piece of paper; if they received the piece with the black dot on it, every member of that family had to pull and whatever member choose the piece with the black dot would have to be killed by stones. The stones were previously picked out by the children and adults of the town. The person who received the black dotted paper

Dehumanization of society ultimately comes from traits passed on from generation to generation. History repetition is implied throughout the text. Jackson demonstrates history repetition by showing the audience how the oldest member teaches the youngest member of the community the stoning ritual before he or she is old enough to understand what is taking place. “The Lottery” perfectly illustrates through text how the past affects the present world, and how history repeats itself over