In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the author maintains many themes throughout the story. Most of these themes are universal in a sense. Examples of themes present in "The Lottery" include the reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, society designating a scapegoat to blame the sins on in the community, and the theme that following the crowd can have consequences.
             One theme in "The Lottery" is the reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, and is displayed in the next quote. Old Man Warner states '"There's always been a lottery"'(5). When he says this, he is basically implying that it had always happened and should continue to happen as part of the tradition. Warner states there has '" always been"' a lottery and implies that it should continue. Altogether this example shows how a society can be reluctant to reject an outdated tradition.
             Another theme in "The Lottery" is that society will always designate a scapegoat in the community to blame everything upon. One quote from "The Lottery" shows an example of this; "Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it..." (9). This quote shows how society wants to blame it on someone else, even if it was their own wife. It shows that Bill Hutchinson went to his "wife" and "forced" her to show the others that she had the slip with the "black spot, "and in doing this designates the scapegoat. Altogether, "The Lottery" is a classic example of a society designating a scapegoat.
             The third theme in Jackson's "The Lottery" is that following a crowd can have dangerous consequences. In the story, after Tessie is designated as the "winner," the story states: "The children had stones already. And some someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles" (9). This line from the story shows that little Davy, following the actions of his peers, contributes to the stoning of his mother to death. The story states that t...