Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

The theme of the story “The Lottery” is blind acceptance of something just because it is considered tradition. In Jackson’s “The Lottery”, symbols are utilized to help show the theme. The name of the story, “The Lottery”, itself is a symbol. The term lottery can be viewed, by most, as a good thing, a hope in winning, but winning the lottery takes on a very different, very dark meaning in Jackson’s story. Also, the names of the characters are symbols as well. For example, Graves is a name that would portray death and Summers is a bright and cheerful name. Also, the name Old Man Warner would show tradition. Next, is the use of the black box and the black dot on the paper. The color black is showing darkness, evil, and death. The tradition of the black box is a symbol, in the fact that it is worn and faded, but still used by the villagers. Shirley Jackson conveys the theme very clearly through the use of symbols. In the end, the villagers are shown to be evil and murderous just because of tradition. The villagers do not seem to have a problem with murdering others within the lottery because it is what they have always done and no one is going to declare that what they are doing is wrong. This shows the reader that following blindly can have dangerous consequences.

“The Lottery” has many symbols that help create the sinister and somber tone of the story. The black box from which the papers are drawn as well as the black dot on the paper are both symbolic of death. Black is a universally accepted

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

What is the difference between superstitions and traditions? «The lottery» by Shirley Jackson provides a good example how superstitions of people from a tiny town affect on those traditions. This story shows dark side of Humanity. Whole community entrusts their life with a small black box. The allegory can confuse you, because the main purpose of the «lottery» is kill one of the citizens for a strange false belief. To my mind, the author tried to explain why new generation sometimes shouldn’t continue the weird and cruel traditions.

The ending of “The Lottery” comes as a shock to the reader. The Ending of the lottery Tessie Hutchinson draw the winning ticket, and is selected to to be stoned to death.The fact that a town would hold this kind of game is atroscious. Part of the reason that the ending was so much of a shock was because the Author’s use of incidental symbolism left one uneasy. Such as the black box and how it was portrayed like a forgotten tuneless chant, the ritual salute. “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.” (The Lottery 1)While most critics see the box as the primary symbol the stool is referenced at least 4 times in the fourth paragraph. “three- legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool.”(The Lottery 1) The stool represents the trinity and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus was sacrificed on the cross Tessie Hutchinson stood on the three legged stool and was stoned to death. But at the beggining jackson sets us on track with some symbolism to indeed show us what is to come. Towards the middle of the story uses some chracter symbolism when it comes to the families. Mr. Dunbar is unable to draw the lottery today, so Mrs. Dunbar agrees to draw for him. However Mr. Summers say. “Don’t you have a grown boy that can draw for you.” Helen Nebeker put the explanation of this conversation extremely well. “In this seemingly innocent exchange the reader is jarred into a suspicion that the mentioned “grown boy” has been a previous victim and that his father cannot face the strain of being present, raising the question whether the breaking of his leg has been accidental or deliberate. At any rate, this loss of a son

Tess’s tone in her last words before being stoned is desperate and hysterical, because she knows that her protests will not result in anything but death. The black box used in the lottery each year isn’t something that the reader would usually associate with a happy lottery. The box is described as, “shabby…splintered…faded and stained,” yet no one in the community wants to replace it because, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” The color black symbolizes the savage and evil nature of the lottery as well as the townspeople’s participation in it and the shabbiness of the box indicates how outdated the tradition truly is. Like the lottery, the box is well worn with its real purpose lost, and the townspeople are extremely reluctant in letting it go, even getting defensive when the idea of it is brought up. After the stoning of the “winner” occurs, the townspeople go on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. The lottery takes less than two hours so that the townspeople could, “…get home for noon dinner,” immediately following the execution. The normalcy of the lottery to the townspeople is horrifying and all throughout the story everyone seems ok with this evil tradition, children are shown laughing and their parents, gossiping and talking about work. When Tess Hutchinson chooses the paper slip with a black dot making her the “winner”, Bill Hutchinson, her husband, as

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” a small village is preparing for an annual drawing, a tradition carried out for generations. During this ritual, the head of each household draws a blank piece of paper out of a black box. One piece of paper is marked with a single black dot and if chosen, the outcome is having the winner’s entire household draw out of the box. Whoever chooses the black dot out of the household is stoned to death by the entire village. In this instance, a husband wins to which his wife protests, and then she is the ultimate victim who is sacrificed. This story includes many literary elements like foreshadowing, warning of a future event, symbolism, symbols used in the story to represent ideas,and irony, when the contrary to what is expected to happen, occurs. Jackson uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to prove the theme that it is foolish and barbaric to blindly follow tradition.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, we observe a community that is absorbed in their rituals and traditions. In this society, they feel bound to their traditions and are even willing to abandon some of humanity’s deepest morals. The basic question of right and wrong is presented as our morals are disregarded in Jackson’s tradition based society. Their past is what they look towards when regarding their future. This community feels tied to their fading tradition and refuses to evolve even when everyone around them is. Consequently, they have become numb to the acts they commit countless times. Every generation is ingrained with these ideals and are expected to never waver from them.

Likewise, the black box is symbolic in the short story. It is a prehistoric box in which the villagers draw the slips of paper but do not want to replace it to avoid “upsetting tradition.” The black box is a symbol to the villagers because many people before them have practiced the lottery. “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born” (Jackson 1). Lending confidence to the villagers, the black box reminds them to trust in their forefathers. Not only are the stones and black box symbolic, but also the marked slip of paper. It is with a single dark dot that indicates who the next victim of the lottery will be. The dot appears to look like a spot or a blemish on a piece of paper. These are frequently associated with disease and so the marking of the dot symbolizes the marking of a person for destruction. The paper itself also manifests the pointlessness of the lottery; it was created by Joe Summers who though of it the night before on a scratch piece of paper with a pencil. It is this mark, made by a random human, that determines the fate of a person. The marked slip of paper holds no power, but rather the power that

There are many important symbolic items in this story, but the major symbolic items are the black wooden box, white slips of paper and the stones. The black box represents the tradition of the lottery. As the lottery itself the black box is old and worn. Also, the color of the box is black which could represent death since black is considered color of death. The black box was always kept in public view to remind the villagers about the tradition “The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool was put in the centre of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it” (Jackson 4). The three-legged stool on which the box was placed is also important since the stool itself was unstable and at one point almost got knocked down. The tradition as the three-legged stool is unstable and could get knocked down at any point. Next, the white slips of paper “He dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the breeze caught them and lifted them off.” (Jackson 60). The papers represent the lives of the villagers and how their lives can be taken away at any moment with a single

Shirley Jackson wrote a short story called "The Lottery". It was about small village and its village people of roughly around 300 people and every year they have a tradition where all the townspeople gather around a black box and have to pull a piece of paper out to see what family was to draw again. Then once the family was picked they had to put as many pieces of paper in the box as they have in their family and do it all over again. Once every family member picked out of the box, they had to open and see who go the paper with the black dot. The family member with the paper with the black dot was to be stoned.People all over the world follow traditions, but the real questions is do they know the meaning behind the tradition.

To the reader’s surprise, the one who would win the lottery would be stoned to death by everyone in the villagers. For example, the black box represents the town’s people preserving a deadly tradition. The black box represents death itself. The color black symbolizes darkness and death.

The story repeatedly stated that the Lottery has had been a tradition and a tradition ought to remain. Nevertheless, no one mentioned the objective of it and merely performed it routinely. Ironically, the box that obtains the draws and the draw itself has alternated while the “ceremony” remained untouched. It was also pointed out that the black box is actually fraying which represents the antiquated ritual. This symbolizes and the ignorance of people as they see amendments of these objects through time but doesn’t come to the realization of their blindness of following the meaningless lottery. The crowd illustrates ignorance and the mental state of how people count on fluke. They allow this to occur annually as long it is not them that gets drafted. The major issue with this thought is how death would be inevitable if they are one that gets picked since there is always going to be someone that gets picked. And in this case the chosen one, Tessie, bursted out with rage and fear once the grim reaper was petting her on her shoulder which had a black and white contrast with her initial

A prominent symbol seen throughout the story is the color black. Near the beginning of the story, Mr. Summers is carrying a black box, which contains the slips of paper for the lottery drawing. Then, “the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it.” (Jackson 1). The box is black because it symbolizes the death that comes with the usage of the box. The box is rarely mentioned as just “the box” so readers might conclude that the box being black is important to the story. Black is an ominous color that is associated with death, mystery, and evil. In addition to the black box, one white slip in the box, the lottery ticket, has a black dot on it. When they look at Tessie’s slip, “it had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before…” (Jackson 5). The black dot could represent the mark of death, since black is associated with dying. Whoever drew the paper with the black dot was the one who would be stoned to death.

When I saw a title of the story is "The Lottery", I thought it was supposed to be a fun story about how people could get a huge fortune. However, the whole story was totally difference. I can understand winning lottery in this situation is a bad luck. No one want to win a death wish if I do say so for myself. Specially, when an execution way is stoned to dead. It's a little confuse in here about why they have to chose one of these people who was their neighborhood to kill for no reason. I have learned that in many ancient culture, they chose one people to sacrifice to their God in return of having a good crops or a good weather. But in this story, I didn't find any reason that lead them have to do so. Maybe they learned