In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," why does the village conduct a lottery?

The reason why the villagers "have" to have a lottery is simply because the lottery had become a tradition that has been followed since the time of the villagers' ancestors. As a result, the villagers have become so used to repeating this practice over and over that they do not even find anything right, nor wrong, with it. In fact, the villagers themselves may not know why they even hold a lottery, however, they do not question their automated response to it: that of doing it, for the sake of getting it done.

The villagers clearly represent that side of society which blindly obliges the repetitive monotony of unquestioned traditions and practices. People like this often do things without knowing why, and only because "the others" prompt them to do things. This is the basic message that Shirley Jackson intends to convey upon her readers: that humans have a great capacity for good on evil, and that this capacity can only be overcome by always questioning the purpose of our actions. When we stop questioning the purpose of our actions, and become automated, the chances of falling within the cracks of society, and even evil doings, are quite higher. Hence, the villagers saw nothing new, nor out of order, in the brutal stoning of Tessie Hutchinson.

A good example of the town's ignorance towards the practice of the lottery comes when the narrator tells us how the practice is so old that its symbolism has been forgotten throughout the years.

... some people remembered [that] there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory. A tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year...There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from the box, but this also had changed with time

Moreover, at the mere suggestion and questioning of the lottery, those who ask get a rude response, appealing to the lottery "always being there", and to how ridiculous the idea of stopping the lottery would be.

Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves . There's always been a lottery

However, nobody seems to ever question its origin, its purpose, nor its fairness. A further example of how the mentality of this villagers is quite limited is the black box. As they realize how old and beat down the black box is, many suggest a replacement. However, as the narrative says, this particular topic just "fades away" and nothing is "being done" about it.

Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the villagers merely practiced the lottery, but had not taken any steps to know what they are doing, nor understand the meaning and goal behind this practice. This is, indeed, a very scary and sad reality about many individuals and groups alike.

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," why does the village conduct a lottery?

We are not really told this.  However, I think the main reason is simply because the lottery is just a tradition.

No one really knows why it is held.  But when the people talk about places that have abolished the lottery, they think those places are dumb.  They don't have a reason -- it's just that this is what they're used to.  I think this is a major point Jackson is trying to make -- that people can get used to even horrible things and do them just because.

As for why it started in the first place, maybe it was once necessary to keep the population down to a manageable level.  Or it may once have been a sacrifice to bring good harvest "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," why does the village conduct a lottery?

This is a very good question. In fact, it might be said to be the principal theme and question of Shirley Jackson's famous story. Why do the townspeople continue to participate in this gruesome lottery year after year when they should realize they are acting only under the influence of the grossest kind of ignorance and superstition?

The story is apparently set in the heartland of America. Since the lottery is intended, like some ancient Aztec ritual involving human sacrifice, to assure a good corn crop, it would seem to be taking place in the "Corn Belt," which runs from eastern Nebraska, through Iowa, and into Illinois. Most likely the exact location of this small town is in Iowa. An unusual feature is that these people seem so isolated from the rest of America. The story seems to be set in the present, but the townspeople seem to know nothing about the outside world. They are like the inhabitants of H. G.Wells' story "The Country of the Blind" who are completely isolated in their valley.

There are indications that some of the townspeople are just beginning to consider the possibility of giving up the annual lottery.

The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, "I hope it's not Nancy," and the sound of the whisper reached the edges of the crowd.

Why does she have to whisper? She is a young girl. If the lottery is ever abolished, it will be the young who will have to take the lead. Old Man Warner represents authority and tradition. He won't even listen to rumors that people in other towns have already given up their lotteries.

"Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly.

This last observation by the oldest citizen is one of the most telling points: There has to be a lottery because there has always been a lottery. The townspeople continue to participate because they have been indoctrinated as children to believe that it is necessary for the common good. As the children become adults, they pass on their superstition to their own children, who accept it on trust, and this continues for generation after generation. Change comes slowly because these people seem to be so isolated, even though they are living in the middle of the United States. This is one of the strangest things about Shirley Jackson's story. She does not attempt to explain why her characters are so cut off from more enlightened ideas; she just assumes this as a "given."

Old man Warner is strongly in favor of the lottery because he has participated all his life and has never drawn the losing slip. It makes him feel immortal.

"Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery," Old Man Warner said as he went through the crowd. "Seventy-seventh time."

If the lottery were abolished, what would be the point of his having risked his life all those years? What else would he have to brag about?

Tessie Hutchinson, on the other hand, sees the terrible wickedness and stupidity of the lottery when she happens to draw the slip with the black spot on it.

"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.

Why do the townspeople participate in the lottery? Shirley Jackson is asking us the same question.

What was the initial purpose of the lottery in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?

Shirley Jackson intentionally leaves the original purpose of the lottery a mystery. It is important to the story that none of the characters should know why or when it started and what was its original purpose. The people just go through the annual ceremony blindly because they have been taught to do so ever since they were tiny children. Little Davy is a good example of how all the people in the story were conditioned to believe in the importance of the lottery.

Mr. Graves took the hand of the little boy, who came willingly with him up to the box. "Take a paper out of the box, Davy," Mr. Summers said. Davy put his hand into the box and laughed. "Take just one paper," Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you hold it for him."

Davy, of course, has no idea that he may be choosing his own death warrant. Chances are he will escape being stoned to death this year because the odds are still four to one in his favor. It turns out that it is his mother who draws the slip with the black mark. So Little Davy is shown how to throw rocks at her when she is stoned to death.

The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.

If the people understood what this lottery was supposed to produce or prevent, they would probably realize it was nothing but an ancient superstition. In that case they would probably abandon it. How can stoning a man, woman or child to death insure good crops, as Old Man Warner is suggesting?

"Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.'

The lottery might date clear back to the days when human sacrifices were made to some god or goddess in order to procure good crops. If the crops were good, that showed the human sacrifice was effective. If the crops were bad--then maybe they had sacrificed the wrong person. The purpose of the lottery remains a mystery because the author wanted to emphasize that the people were doing something outrageous without even knowing why they were doing it. Tessie Hutchinson is a woman known to everyone in attendance, and everyone seems to like her. Nevertheless, when she draws the fatal black spot, they turn on her without pity.

Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.

What was the initial purpose of the lottery in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?

The worst absurdity in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is that there is no known initial purpose for the lottery. If it once had a purpose, knowledge of it has been completely lost. At best, the purpose of the lottery has been reduced to a superstition described by Old Man Warner, the eldest member of the village: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." In other words, according to Old Man Warner, villagers have acted out of the superstition that someone's murder would bring the village prosperity in the future. However, Jackson's short story can, according to Charles E. May, editor of the Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, be interpreted as referring to ancient scapegoat rituals.

Many ancient societies had scapegoat rituals, two of those societies being Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. We have two different accounts of the Ancient Greek and Roman scapegoat ritual, one from the poet Hipponax of the 6th century BCE and one from Roman courtier Petronius of the first century CE. According to Hipponax, in times of pestilence, famine, or other problems that could devastate an entire society, one of the city's undesirables, such as a poor person, a criminal, or ugly person, was either selected or volunteered to be the scapegoat. The scapegoat was then fed well and clothed well for a time. After that time period, the city hurled abuses on the scapegoat and killed him or her in inhumane ways. According to Petronis, the scapegoat was merely driven from the town. The ritual served the purpose of placing the whole city's blame for any ills all on the scapegoat in order to purge the town, similarly to the biblical sacrificial lamb or the Old Testament scapegoat ritual in which an actual goat was driven into the desert.

According to editor Charles E. May, it can be said that Jackson is recreating the ancient scapegoat rituals: One of the members of the village is killed so that the rest can prosper. However, she recreates the scapegoat ritual in order to show its absurdity, as expressed by Mrs. Hutchinson's final words, "It isn't fair, it isn't right." In showing the ritual's absurdity, she shows how easily society can be blinded by the idea of tradition; members of society will willingly follow through with an action, without even understanding it's actual purpose, simply because they think the action is traditional.

How does the lottery work in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"?

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the reader sees an archaic and brutal tradition that is carried out each year in the village. While Jackson's opening descriptions make it seem as though the lottery is a happy, wholesome event for the villagers, it quickly becomes evident that this is not the case.

The lottery begins with Mr. Summers carrying in the old, black box that has been used for years and years. It is worn, weathered, splintered, and stained, and it is carried ceremoniously and sat atop a three-legged stool in the middle of the crowd.

While past lotteries had used chips of wood for the drawing, Mr. Summers had convinced the townspeople that changing to paper slips would be more efficient. One slip of paper for each household in the town is placed in the lottery box; all the slips are blank except for one randomly selected slip on which Mr. Summers drew a black mark the night before.

The lottery has two rounds. In the first round, each family name is called in alphabetical order, and the male heads of each household come forward and draw a slip of paper without looking. If the father is deceased, the oldest boy in the family does it instead. Daughters are considered part of their husband's family. After each household has drawn, the men open their slips of paper to see if they have a black mark. If they have a black mark, then their family is the focus of the next round.

The second round of the lottery has one piece of paper for each member of that chosen household, and again, one of those slips has the black mark. One by one, each member of that family goes to the box and selects a slip of paper but does not look until instructed.

When it is revealed which family member has the black mark on their slip, the villagers quickly gather stones and pebbles, chase that person down, and stone them to death.

In "The Lottery," why are the people of the village willing to turn on their friends and neighbors because of a lottery?

Why these seemingly normal villagers would behave in such a brutal way points to several themes in the story. They participate in the lottery because it is a tradition in their community so old that no one can remember exactly when it started. They blindly follow this custom simply because they always have. No one thinks independently; no one challenges tradition; no one stands up against the majority. It is an example of "group think."

Once the stoning begins, another element enters the story. The people become a savage mob instead of a group of individual neighbors and family members. The psychology of the mob takes over; the mob functions as one entity after a victim has been identified.

The various themes in the story are explained in detail in the eNotes references shown below.

What is the original meaning of the lottery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"?

The origin of Shirley Jackson's story is as old as man. For, man's inhumanity to man has always been in existence; also, man's proclivity towards finding a scapegoat for his problems is also ancient.  The custom of a scapegoat goes back to ancient history in Israel when people would lead a goat away and tie it far outside their village, hoping that the evil would ride out on the back of the goat.

In Jackson's story, the lottery in which the villagers draw to see who has the black dot and will be stoned goes beyond the tradition of removing evil and bad luck from the village so that the crops will thrive.  It also bespeaks of blindness of tradition as well as the innate sadism of humans. In fact, when Jackson's story was published, while there were many who were outraged, there were also those who inquired about the name of the town where the stoning took place because they wished to travel there and watch themselves.

In her essay introducing "The Lottery," Jennifer Hicks writes that Jackson saw herself as a psychic even as a girl, envisioning, Hicks remarks, "the present in the past."  Clearly, then, Jackson perceives the ancient and innate nature of man to blame others and to enjoy doing violence to them.  This, then, is the original meaning of the lottery that is applicable to the time of the story's writing in the wake of World War II and its many atrocities as well as to the present day. Stanley Edgar Hyman, a literary critic, who wrote about the influence of world events on Jackson's fiction, noted,

Her fierce visions of dissociations and madness, of alienation and withdrawal, of cruelty and terror, have been taken to be personal, even neurotic fantasies. Quite the reverse: They are a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the bomb."