Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery"

In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery", the main theme is how traditions lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness. This can cause horrible consequences to occur. The story is set in a small town, 'on the morning of June 27th'. It opens with false innocence, using children, tricking the reader into an unaware state. The reader almost expects the Lottery to be something wonderful since the "normal" lottery has the winner getting a prize …

…of Tessie. They cannot blame their actions on forgetfulness but rather on hypocrisy. When Mrs. Delacroix was selecting a 'stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands', she could have stopped and questioned the ethics of 'The Lottery'. Forgotten traditions can be extremely dangerous as Shirley Jackson points out in her short story. Any one of us can forget something important about a tradition that could eventually lead to dreadful consequences.