Symbolism In The Lottery

When you think of the lottery, what do you imagine? Gold, A new house, maybe a car? This short story is nothing like you’re thinking. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, conveys its message through the use of diction, dialogue, irony, and theme. "The Lottery" first appeared in the New Yorker in 1948.

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published on June 26, 1948. The story was initially met with negative critical reception due to its violent nature and portrayal of the potentially dangerous nature of human society. It was even banned in some countries. However, “The Lottery” is now widely accepted as a classic American short story and is used in classrooms throughout the country.

Symbolically the battered black box represents the death that it brings to the community as well as a worn out tradition. The box is mentioned repeatedly throughout the story, which is a sign of its importance, although we are kept in the dark about its ultimate function until the very end. It is described as "…no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places [is] faded or stained." (Jackson 75). This seems to also describe the lottery itself- old, faded, and stained with the blood of all those who have died in years past. Ironically, the black box used in the story was said not to be the original box and the papers that they used were substitutes for the old wood chips. This is a sign that the tradition is so old and meaningless that it can be constantly added to or taken away from. "Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box…[and] every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done" (Jackson 75). Perhaps Mr. Summers's idea symbolizes a need for a new tradition.

There are many lively traditions attributed to the culture of the United States. An example of a tradition is the holiday of the 4th of July, celebrating the independence of the United States. Another is the holiday of Thanksgiving, where thanks is given to the Natives that provided the Pilgrims with food. Then, there are lotteries, where people have a shot at winning thousands and millions of dollars. Lotteries always bring a sense of happiness and eagerness to attendees and winners. Plenty of people across the United States attend since a lot of money can be acquired from winning. This gives winning the lottery a positive connotation. Although the lottery tradition of America is positive, others are not so positive. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” the tradition costs people their lives. Therefore giving winning the lottery a negative connotation. Through depictions of the nervousness of the adults and children as well as her descriptions of the objects associated with the lottery, Shirley Jackson, in her short story, suggests the horror of violence that concludes the story.

The idea of winning a lottery is associated with luck, happiness and anticipation of good things. In Shirley Jackson's story, " The Lottery", this is not the case. The irony of the story is that the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by everyone else in the town. The story is very effective because it examines certain aspects of human nature.

The short story “The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. It was first published in a popular magazine, The New Yorker (Kirszner & Mandell 419). The story starts out on a pleasant summer day but has a much darker ending. This instantly caused mass confusion and anger by most of the magazine's readers. Some readers even canceled their subscription to the magazine. Although the readers demanded answers, Jackson refused to give any explanation of the story. The best explanation was from a literary editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, who was also confused by the story. Jackson explained that the story was written to shock the readers by dramatizing the pointless violence and inhumanity in their own lives (The New Yorker). This

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a terrify story about a small town and their traditions. The Ending of the lottery is the most shocking many of its readers have ever read. Why is it so shocking. Well Shirley jackson uses sybolism and simple narritive and her normal life to convey such a shock.

Winning the lottery sounds pretty cool doesn't it? Mostly everyone has thought about how excited and happy they'd be if they won. Well think again, in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," she portrays a different, more gruesome lottery than what one may imagine. To develop her overall theme of tradition, Jackson employs the use of foreshadowing, irony, and satire.

The black box is not only Alliteration, but it is also a symbol in “The Lottery”. Martine Ma declares, “The black box holds the key between life or death for every single one of the townspeople”. Inside the black box is a “slip of paper” (Jackson1870) with “a black spot” (Jackson1870) that would declare the death of a villager and the sacrifice for the harvest. The black box also represents ‘evil’ in “The Lottery”. Seth Cassel stated, “The villagers have become entranced in the gruesome tradition of stoning people.” Proving that the black box has manipulated the townspeople into killing their fellow villagers because of the lottery the black box

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

Shirley Jackson wrote the story “The Lottery” back in 1948 to show us how ridiculous it could be to blindly follow certain traditions. In this story the author uses symbolisms to warn and prepare the reader about the gruesome ending of the lottery. There are a lot of symbols in the story and the main are the items, the lottery and the character names.

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, all the symbols in the story points toward one direction of the true human nature. Throughout the story, there are also many examples of Irony, such as the names of the characters. Although the society in the lottery is far from the society today, It can relate to “Allegory of the Cave”. “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore,” (p.219)The characters in these two short story believed in totally different things but they both still choose to believe without any good reason. Symbolism plays a big part in the story. There are many examples in the story of symbolism including the title, events, and name of characters.

The types of symbols that are used in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are literary symbols, such as the black box, which is mainly the central theme of the story since it symbolizes life or death for each individual in the town, but when we read the ending we find out truly the date of the lottery, location, and symbolic or ironic names of its characters all work together to convey a meaning that is even more disturbing than the ending (Yarmove). The box is a literary symbol because it represents the characters refusal to change, the box is old and splintered showing how they adhere to something that is familiar preferably than change and symbolizes the traditions of the town (Yarmove). Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers

In a small New England village where all the residents are gathering for their traditional annual lottery. The lottery gradually becomes an important part in all the residents. Tessie Hutchinson seems unconcerned about the tradition until her family have to take part in the dreaded mark. Then she protests that the process wasn't fair. The "winner," it turns out, will be stoned to death by the remaining residents. Tessie wins, and the story closes as the villagers -- including her own family members -- begin to throw rocks at her. Then about the symbolism of this short story, we can know black box symbol for death and its randomness and the lottery symbol for any action, behavior or idea that has been

Numerous critics have carefully discussed Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” in terms of the scapegoat traditions of anthropology and literature, pointing out its obvious comment on the innate savagery of man lurking beneath his civilized trappings. Most acknowledge the power of the story, admitting that the psychological shock of the ritual murder in an atmosphere of modern, small-town normality cannot be easily forgotten. Nevertheless, beneath the praise of these critics frequently runs a current of uneasiness, a sense of having been defrauded in some way by the development of the story as a whole.