Henry S. Haskins once said, “Tradition is a prison in which the majority opinion is the modern jailer.” The quote relates to the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, as the tradition is substantial and important to their community. They've been doing the lottery for years, even though some people want to break with tradition, they'll never break with tradition because that's what they know, and it's always been that way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The story is based on a small community and every year they hold a lottery by drawing a paper from a black box, whoever gets the paper with the black dot on it has to be stoned by everyone in the city. The lottery theme displayed throughout the short story is “we” do things out of habit even though it may be detrimental; the story shows great symbolisms of tradition in the use of stones as weapons and the significance of the black box to the townspeople. In writing this story, Shirley Jackson made tradition her main focus. When Jackson wrote the short story, the time frame was very important in how the story was written. The story was written around the time of World War II and at that time people had a mindset of "if it's not me, I don't care". about this.' For example, the world knew that concentration camps were being created by Hitler but did nothing to prevent them, which led to the extinction of 6 million Jews; and the United States did not want to get involved until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, rather they wanted to remain neutral until it was "them" who were injured in the fight. In terms of history, they [the townspeople] had the same mindset as if it was a matter of laissez-faire, if someone in their family did not draw the paper with the dot black, they liked to stone whoever did it. For example, when the town realized during the final draw that Tessie was the one who ultimately drew the black dot, they all rushed to collect rocks and happily stone her because they weren't in her predicament . The large shapes were just as important. of symbolisms linked to tradition, notably in the use of stones as a murder weapon other than anything else, which could possibly be used in this time zone. The stones are used to show an act of violence as the children stack stones at the beginning and then contribute to the end of the lottery with the adults by stoning another. In history, stones have been used by groups of people bonding to murder another, meaning there is no single executioner. According to tradition, at the beginning of Christianity, a community got rid of a stranger through collective punishment by stoning. Another reason why stones are of great importance is that they were the first murder weapons used by early humans for violent rituals. Jackson also shows the tradition of the lottery through the black box. The black box is old and made from pieces of the box that came before it, they say, and the town's population has grown instead of drawing the original wood chips that town residents draw on paper. The black box represents the physical connections between the city's inhabitants and their tradition. They don't want to let go, even if they fear the outcome. Honestly, the box itself has no meaning until the day of the lottery. By.