The lottery and Tradition

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is comparable to the theme concept that it can be acceptable to require the individual to sacrifice for the greater good.  In the olden days of Indian's and other cultures like; the Holy war, the salon witch trials and some native tribes.  they all would do sacrifices just to keep the fear of the unknown and the hope of great fortune alive in their society.  the lottery story is not much different, "Guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work." this quote from Mr. Summers shows that they want to get it over and move on without regret and to keep the tradition alive.  another quote from the book is, "Seventy-seventh years i been in the lottery," this shows that they have kept the tradition alive for that long.  the story doesn't stop till the village people draw a winner which in turn is ironic because the winner gets killed by stones. 

In society we keep traditions alive in our own way in the Africa some tribes keep the ways of their ancestors by killing each other and taking their body parts as a symbol of victory.  The best modern day example of sacrifice is when children bully others for attention or to feel big.  the person that is being picked on is like the winner in the lottery story.  they both get beaten by a symbolic object for the story the women got stoned and for the child it could vary from verbal to physical harm.  either way both are victims of tradition that needs to either change or drastically improve. 

I relate this lottery story to the story of lord of the flies the boys stranded on a island go primal and start killing one another for survival and to keep order in the society.  my question for the author is this what was her motivation to write this and did she feel like the women in the lottery at the end picked and sculled for her work?