In The Lottery, the inhabitants of a small village attend a lottery every year. Having done the same thing for years on end, they unquestioningly accept what is happening, even as they are murdering their friends and neighbors.
This lottery is only an extreme example of what can happen if people just follow what their predecessors have done without question. Despite the lottery having existed for so long that many of the rules, and even the purpose of the event, have been forgotten, the inhabitants of the village still cling to it. With every new generation, more of the lottery is being forgotten, until one has to wonder if the current lottery holds the same purpose as the original, or if it is just an empty skeleton of what it had previously been. After all, parts of the lottery had been “allowed to lapse,” and other parts had been “changed with time.”
When Mr. Adams mentions that some other towns were abandoning the lottery, Old Man Warner contemptuously says, “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves…” His belief that society would fall apart without the lottery indicates why the tradition is kept, among other reasons. Old Man Warner is also the one who urges the other inhabitants to stone Mrs. Hutchinson. He not only encourages these acts of violence, but he also vastly overestimates the effect of the lottery. However, he can’t exactly be blamed for that, as nobody investigated the event. His character is a warning to be wary of blindly following tradition. Old Man Warner also boasts that he has attended the lottery for seventy-seven years. He does so freely, as if it’s some sort of strength, not realizing that there are very real people being affected very seriously by such an event.
In this story, Mrs. Hutchinson seems to be the only one to truly understand the implications of the lottery, as she is the only one really affected (familial ties don’t seem to be too important in this village). But by the time she fully realizes it, it’s too late. At first, she, like everybody else, unquestioningly attends the lottery. However, the way she treats the lottery was different from her neighbors — while everyone else treats it as a solemn occasion, her tardiness, among other events, shows that Mrs. Hutchinson thinks of the lottery more lightheartedly, at least initially. But when she draws the slip of paper spelling out her death sentence, the full weight of what is going to happen hits her hard. The only thing she can do is cry out that “it’s not fair.” Despite her obvious hypocrisy, it is difficult not to feel sorry for Mrs. Hutchinson.
The people in this story are, as stated previously, committing murder, but it doesn’t weigh on their conscience at all. They, simply because they are not affected, do not realize what is happening, nor do they bother to wonder about it. This story is a warning that traditions should be appraised and questioned critically. When the purpose is lost, even if a tradition provides comfort in its regularity, there is little reason to continue following it.