Question

Some rituals in "The Lottery" had continued while others had not. Name one ritual that had continued to the time of this story. Explain why this ritual was necessary to ensure conformity among members of the community. Provide two details from the story to support your response.

Answer 1

One ritual that had continued to the times of the story The Lottery was the tradition of the lottery day. They kept the same black box every year even though it was falling apart. The ritual was necessary to ensure conformity among members of the community because they had practiced it for so long that the people didn't know what would happen if they didn't do it. They actually feared what would happen if they forsook the tradition. Two details from the story that support this need for the lottery occur when the old man talks about how some other towns got rid of the lottery and everyone was surprised and patronized the other villages because of it, and the other time is when everyone gathered together to stone Mr. Hutchinson at the end and no one questioned if it was wrong or not.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

One ritual that continued to the time of the story was the old black box being used to hold the villagers’ names. This ritual was necessary to ensure conformity among the members of the community because it kept a sense of tradition to the Lottery, so the villagers would fear discontinuing the Lottery- they’d be afraid of what would happen if they stopped the ancient ritual- it had been going on for a long time, so none of the villagers knew what would happen if they discontinued it.