The Ritual In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

As the moment our ancestors decided to evolve and to promote themselves to a higher superior species, ritual becomes an essential part of human life. Yet, the majority of people comply with these practices regardless of the nature or the fundamental roots of them, whether it is benevolent or malevolent. In other words, superstitious and extremely religious individuals follow traditions blindly, which will consequently lead to social dissension and turmoil. According to Miller Williams, ritual is the indispensable factor for us as human beings and the substantial connection to our pasts and our traditions. However, I utterly disagree with this assessment because most rituals appear to be superfluous and absurd. It is the primary reason that humans are being detained in the obsolete era. Two short stories …show more content…
Since the villagers intensely believe that practicing such atrocious ritual will award them a prolific harvest and a prosperous life, they blindly follow the ritual murder and acknowledge it as a part of their town life. Moreover, the most appalling part of the ritual is not the ruthless murder, but the dreadful indifference the villagers present even though they are utterly conscientious when performing. Additionally, this ritual does not limited to adults; innocent children were involved in the cruel misdeed. However, the children were not compelled to participate in such misconduct, they volunteered to be part of it and even enjoy it. Such a ghastly fact can reveals the permeation of this ritual within the community and the involvement of innocent child highlight the fact that blindly following tradition is exceedingly hazardous. Through the theme of the short story "The Lottery", Jackson would disagree with Miller Williams that ritual is significant to human