Research Paper on:
'Good' and 'Bad' Tradition in 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson

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the fact that, throughout human history, evil has often been banal, something that is taken for granted within the social framework of ordinary life. Using this liberal humanistic approach, Jackson  dramatically illustrates that institutions should not be automatically honored and respected simply because they have existed for a long time. "The Lottery" forces the reader to reconsider and reexamine preconceived  notions of what is considered to be "good" or "bad" when the principal criteria for judgement is tradition. Jackson begins by setting up the situation surrounding the village lottery,  so that the reader sees the event in a manner similar to the way it is viewed by the people of the village, that is, as something ordinary. The men  have obviously just come in from the fields. The women wear ordinary housedresses, and the children play and talk of school. Jackson tells the reader that the lottery -- like  the "square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program" -- was always conducted by Mr. Summers (195). Everything in the first part of the story is designed to emphasize,  first of all, that the lottery was not considered to be an extraordinary event in the life of this village; and, secondly, Jackson emphasizes the antiquity of the event.  The original equipment needed to conduct the lottery was lost "long ago," and the current paraphernalia shows signs of age, the black box, for instance, was "faded and stained" (195).  This is a civic event that has been conduced every year since the founding of the village. Old Man Warner states the rationalization that provides the motivation behind  why the lottery is conducted, "Lottery in June, corn by heavy soon" (Jackson 198). At some point in the distant past, this agricultural society, as many primitive societies have been