My Father's Church Traditions example essay topic

Religious groups encourage and enforce conformity of their social norms and beliefs upon their members. Religious traditions are usually passed on from parent to child at an early age. In "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson reveals the tradition of the lottery and how all of the villagers conform to the ritual of a human sacrifice. Growing up with an exceptionally religious father I can relate to way of thinking of the villagers that traditions are accepted without questioning. In "The lottery", the children were stuffing their pockets with stones before all of the parents had arrived", Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones" (529). This illustrates that the children were taught what to do in the event of the lottery and by being prepared it shows that they were keen to please their parents.

My father had always pressured me to follow his religious beliefs and traditions. At first I was eager to attend his church sermons and Sunday school because it made me fell like I was pleasing my father and he would reward me with praise and ice creams on the drive home. But as I got older I started to realize that certain rules and regulations of the church were unnecessary and some were even ludicrous. For example, at the age of twelve my father had announced that we would discard our television because the church thought that a television allows us to watch the evils and sinners of the world, as so did the movie theatre and the Friday night junior high school dance. Luckily my mother disagreed with the whole idea and the television remained. Even though my mother had not been a true believer in the church she had always gone along with my father's traditions for fear of being a disappointment to the church.

But when it was her turn to suffer and to not be able to watch her favorite soaps she didn't look at the situation in the same way. This was the case with Mrs. Hutchinson in "The lottery", she had not seen any crime in the annual stoning until it had directly affected her", Tessie Hutchison was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair", she said" (534). The act of the annual lottery can be seen as a religious sacrificing, such as the human sacrificing to the Gods in ancient times and also the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that allowed mankind to be forgiven for their sins. My father's religion strongly believes in personal salvation.

They force their ideals upon others and they point out the sinful behaviors of society. All of my father's church traditions seem to allow the members to believe that they are being separated from what they perceive as evil. In both "The lottery" and my father's religion the theme that I believe that is best represented is the fear of change. The tradition of the lottery is so firmly established that no one in the village had ever questioned it. When Mrs. Adams mentions that some places had ended the lottery, Old man Warner thought that change was not a good idea", Some places have already quit lotteries, Mrs. Adams Said.

Nothing but trouble in that, Old man Warner said stoutly. Pack of young fools" (532). My father's religion is also very set in their old ways. The way of life and how people had evolved has drastically changed over the last century. My father's church still strongly opposes divorce, premarital engagements, and to some extent they have not fully agreed with the changing roles of women in society. It is obvious that too much change will put a strain on individuals and organizations and this is why I believe that both the villagers and my father's religion have made such a resistant to the evolving society around them.

Considering the literature that I have read so far", The Lottery" has had the most significant impact on my thought and reflection of my experiences of growing up with religion and traditions. The idea of being forced to conform to traditional and social norms of my father's religion at a very young age without understanding why is portrayed in "The lottery".