Shirley Jackson The Theme Of The Lottery

Many themes could be interpreted throughout the “The Lottery”. While Shirley Jackson is writing “The Lottery”, she gives a good theme of tradition. Throughout the whole story she explains the little events the people of the village do once a year, the day the lottery takes place. The villagers take tradition so far when it is time for the lottery because they have done the event so long they see nothing wrong with it. The lottery is taking someone’s life away because that person drew a black dot. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” she depicts how tradition can be so blinding and the dangers of never seeing how destructive an event can be. First, the gathering of the lottery becomes more and more familiar for the people of the village. With

The black box is something they use every year, and after the lottery is done, they put it away for the following year. “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” (Jackson 2). In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, she gives a good example of symbolism by having a black box for the drawing of the lottery, which can interpret someone dying every year the lottery comes around. Majority of the time black represents death because it is not a happy color, and the lottery is not a happy moment to the person who gets the black dot to become stoned. Here, Shirley shows how someone can take tradition so seriously they do not even want to change the box they have used since they have started the major event they participate in. The villagers have had the same black box for a while and do not want to change anything about it because the tradition for the box is so strong. “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. 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” (Jackson 1). Therefore, if someone has something

The villagers never saw how dangerous the lottery was because they have done the same for so long. If the villagers never would have made the lottery something they do once every year than it would not be so intense if they did not. Of course, nobody wants to get rid of a tradition, but at some point it should stop. The effect the lottery could have on the village is the population could eventually start to fall and effect the whole village. No child should have to take place in one of their parents getting stone, nor should the parents should have to take place in stoning their child. People should see the effects the lottery has on the village for future