Death Unit 2

     The Lottery by Shirley Jackson has a theme of the danger of blindly following tradition.  For one thing, these people are killing someone every year for no reason at all.  They do not understand what they are actually doing.  The people seem like they do not even want to change this ritual even though no one is forcing them to keep it.  Since the lottery is tradition, the people of the village continue to perform this ritual.  They do not know the exact origin or reason for it.  Mrs. Hutchinson does not even think that what they are doing is cruel.  She was hurrying to the lottery and said that when  she remembered what day it was, she "came a-running" (266).  This shows that these people do not even think twice about what they are doing.  It is tradition, and that is all that matters.