The Death and Old Tradition of “The Lottery” It’s spring of 1930 and as the British Empire continues to lose territory and men through many revolutions, they get desperate. They continue to enforce hefty taxes on their largest colony. They enforced taxes on the Indians like the salt, trade and land taxes. Finally, the Indians have enough of the unfair amount of taxes. After many small successful peaceful protest campaigns against the British, Mahatma Gandhi launched his largest protest yet. The famous Salt March. He and his followers, a group of over 50,000 people, embarked on a 24-day, 240-mile march to the salt mines on the coast of India. This protest was the most successful of his lifetime that led to the entire nation of India uniting as one to fight and rid the British of their …show more content…
Just like the Indians, the people in the short story The Lottery, long for change. People are not for the old tradition of the lottery, which is the local population picking a person to sacrifice for the upcoming season for their crops. Shirley Jackson uses the symbolism of the black box and the stones throughout the short story The Lottery to display death and outdated tradition. The lottery box represents death and old tradition because of the vivid description of the box and the villagers' reaction when they have to pick out of the box. As Mr. Summers brings the box and sets it on the stool, “The villagers kept their distance, leaving space between them and the stool”(Jackson 2). If whatever could have been in the lottery box was good, then they would be gathering around it and excited and talking amongst one another. Instead, there is no talking and excitement among the villagers that we are aware of. The vibe around the lottery box seems to be scary and sad to the point where the villagers “kept their distance”(Jackson 2). from the box of