Symbolism And Irony In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is an intense short story with significant symbolism and irony. The story reminds me of a few modern day movies and novels, such as The Hunger Games or The Purge. The primal idea that every person has evil in them, as well as, they will be a “follower,” simply out of fear is my perception of the story’s intended message. There are many different uses of symbolism used in the story; The Lottery itself, the black box and black dot, the white sheets of paper, and the stones are the main uses of symbolism and will be discussed throughout this paper. When most people think of the lottery, they think of winning big or hitting the jackpot. It is something, that people desire to win and only a small percentage of society will ever win it. In the story wining

Often black is associated with death, thus the box and the dot being black is nothing short of direct symbolism. We know that the Jessie’s black mark means she was to die based on when the writer began to describe her death, “A stone hit her on the side of the head” (Jackson 342). The black box itself also had another symbolism aside from death, it to symbolized tradition. Throughout the years the meaning and reasoning behind the lottery has become unclear. One of the constants has been the box, the one that held the names of the head of the household. The box never staying in one place, but always visible to some degree had became almost sacred to the ritual, this is seen when Mr. Summers talked about making a new box. “..but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” (Jackson 337). I assume the townspeople elected to keep the box out of fear if the box changed the rules could change. Once again their fear of the lottery forced them to allow the cruel event to take