The lottery is an annual tradition for the villagers, and they dutifully uphold it. Once a year, on June 27, someone is randomly selected to be ritually sacrificed. This person is not guilty of any crime, nor does there appear to be a restriction on age. No amount of protest from the selected party will change the will of the town once the lottery is complete. The killing is considered justified since everyone took the same risk. Though the town breathes a sigh of relief when little Dave Hutchinson’s slip is blank, there is nothing to suggest that they would not have killed him had he drawn the marked paper from the black box instead. The townsfolk are willing to turn on their neighbors, friends, and even their own families, which speaks to the dangers of blindly following tradition.

As the oldest resident and the lottery’s most vocal proponent, Old Man Warner represents strict adherence to tradition. The younger townsfolk are nervous and solemn during the ceremony. Some, like the Watson boy, seem to have reservations about participating. In contrast, Old Man Warner proudly proclaims that he has been through 77 lotteries. For him, the lottery is necessary for the town’s survival. He is unable to envision a world without the lottery. Mr. and Mrs. Adams mention that other towns have given up the lottery. Old Man Warner claims that this will lead to nothing but trouble. He is scornful towards younger people, claiming that “nothing is good enough for them.” His resistance to change echoes the town’s steadfast upholding of the lottery as a tradition.

No one, even Old Man Warner, knows exactly when or why the lottery began. This sense of timelessness gives it power. Since they do not know why it began, they cannot be certain of what will happen if they stop it. Instead, they cling to it for fear that “trouble” will happen if they break with tradition. The culture of the town seems structured around the idea that the lottery is necessary for survival. Their unwillingness to question the lottery as a tradition suggests that change is a fundamental human fear. They would prefer to continue their brutal tradition rather than risk losing a longstanding part of their culture.

However, the townspeople's adherence to tradition is inconsistent. For example, they refuse to make a new box, but they were willing to switch to paper over wood chips. They are reluctant to let a woman draw for her household, yet they have long since dispensed with the ceremonial rituals. This inconsistency suggests that tradition for the sake of tradition is meaningless. The townsfolk agreed to start using paper over traditional wood chips because the population of the town had grown. Through this detail, Jackson suggests that as the cultural context of the world changes, so should its traditions. While the wood chips made sense for a smaller population, they do not for a larger one. Similarly, just as the lottery used to make sense, an increasing number of villages are questioning its presence in a more modern world. Jackson uses “The Lottery” to ask readers to question the traditions of the world around them.