A Worn Path

Rodney Thacker

Dr. Perry

English 1102

17 March 2008

The Unforgotten Tradition

Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery” in 1948 about a small rural town that has a very special but strange tradition. Every year on June 27 the townspeople gather for a tradition called the lottery; in which every one comes to the center of town to participate in a drawing. The drawing is supposed to be very traditional but many of the people have let nearly all traditions slip away into the past except one. The villagers still believe the stones hold a very special place in their prosperity throughout the years.

The Lottery is an important ritual to the townspeople in which every single person in the village must be a part of, and only last a few hours so they will be done before lunch. The Lottery is a crop ritual the villagers believe will help their crops grow more abundantly. Many of the original traditions and actions that used to take place are no longer enforced or practiced, like the recital by the official or the use of wood chips. The official of the lottery originally recited a speech almost like a poem or a song but now have resorted to being sworn in, and the people now use slips of paper for the drawing instead of wood chips. The lottery doesn’t seem as traditional or meaningful to the villagers any more, it is more of a way to be sure the crops will be good and plentiful for the year.

The black box which is one of most sacred pieces of the lottery does not hold the importance it used to, but it is still used to conduct the lottery. The box was the symbol of the lottery in which one persons’ fate lied. The keepers of the box now just let it stay where ever it is placed instead of safe place as if it were just a normal box with no significance. It is made up of pieces from the original one that was used, and it very ragged. Many of the villagers want to make a new box, but some of the elders like the idea of the box still having remnants of the original. When the time comes for the lottery to happen, the official of the lottery fills the box full with slips of paper, one for every person. One slip of paper has a dot on it and whoever draws this slip is the unfortunate winner of the lottery.

Toward the end of the story the narrator notes that “Although the villagers have forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones”. The village people have abandoned many of the original