In The Lottery, the main theme is tradition. The Lottery is actually a ritual that has been going on forever in this town. When a person wins the lottery, then his/her family pick from a box again. Whichever person picks the black dot on a piece of paper gets killed. Many people in the story talk about how the ritual should be changed and shouldn't go on anymore. The elders of the town can't stand a change, because this is the ay that they have been living since they were born. In the story, it doesn't say why or how the lottery started, it only tells how it works, and the reason they still do it. If it explained why or how it started, then maybe it would seem  easier to understand why the elders won't change it. Now it just seems that the elders want to see people killed, because they won't change the laws concerning the lottery.