The Traditions and Inumanity of this World

The short story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story that portrays the inhumanity that is inside everybody and how it is brought out especially by the urge to win and the traditions in a community like the one in the story.

The themes in the lottery are senseless violence and tradition. Senseless violence because the award for winning the lottery was getting stoned to death most likely. Also When old man Warner was talking with Mr. Summers he was saying that the village in the north was not participating in the lottery, Mr. Warner said that it was barbaric and that they were changing with the times. But the real barbaric ones were the people in his village because of the senseless violence that is brought out in people when someone wins something.

Also a theme in the short story is tradition because the people in the village were sticking with the tradition of having the lottery every year even though what it did to people. The tradition of having a lottery every year and having them being stoned to most likely the point of death is barbaric which goes completely against what Old man Warner was saying.

And lastly a theme in The Lottery is Naivety or blind faith because the villagers believe that this is the way of life and every other village as well. The villagers are very naive because they only believe in one thing and that is senseless violence because of the lottery and the blind faith they live by with the traditions that are upheld in the community.