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What other examples of scapegoating are there in the story? What attitudes do the characters have towards the ritual?

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The lottery is an ancient and sacred tradition, the purpose of which has been forgotten over time. It's a scapegoat ritual, but it isn't always clear that the villagers choose Tessie because they think she's guilty or because they have to make someone "pay" for their sins.

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The characters experience a range of feelings regarding the lottery. Mr. Adams reports that "over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery." It is possible that he brings this up because he, too, is in favor of giving up the tradition and wants to test the waters of his own village. The mere fact that he does not offer an opinion seems to indicate that he is not averse to the idea.

Old Man Warner , on the other hand, thinks the village considering giving up the lottery is a "pack of crazy fools." He thinks that the youth are responsible for the general decline he perceives in society: "'Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more.'" Warner thinks it's terrible even to see Mr. Joe Summers "joking with everybody," as this seems to detract from...

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the solemnity of the ceremony. Warner also reminds people of the old saying, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." In other words, he seems to believe in superstition as well as tradition—that the tradition itself is worth keeping because it is tied to the earth's fertility and the crop's success.

Mr. Summers, somewhere in the middle, tries to keep the lottery as light as possible, and he's even proposed "making a new box" for the ceremony since the old one is "splintered badly [. . .] and in some places faded or stained." However, because "no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box," his requests always fall on deaf ears. He is obviously not quite as rigid as Old Man Warner, though many others are.

In general, "so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded" that it becomes clear that the villagers only seem to keep up the tradition because it is tradition. No one, besides Old Man Warner, really appears to remember what its purpose was. Although Tessie Hutchinson does not appear to be blamed for others' sins or crimes—the most common use of the word scapegoat—she is the recipient of irrational hostility (a secondary definition): after all, she is stoned to death for nothing more than bad luck. All lottery victims, then, are scapegoated in this way; they have committed no crime or sin themselves but are subject to stoning regardless, only in order to uphold an antiquated tradition.

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