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Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

717 Words3 Pages

Symbolism Relating to the Theme “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson and the setting is in the town square on June 27, a beautiful day. While all 300 village members stand together amongst their families, Mr. Summers carries the box to the front of the crowd, followed by Mr. Graves. Inside the box consists of each villagers name written on a slip of paper. Once he reads each name, the family head comes up and draws a slip. After everyone has one, everyone opens their slip, then they quickly realize Bill Hutchinson “got it.” Therefore, a slip of paper is put in the box for each of his household members and then each of his members draw. His wife, Tessie Hutchinson drew the one with the black dot on it. People quickly made a clearing …show more content…

This barely represents a box figure anymore, but the villagers believe highly in tradition, so they will not part with it. Subsequently, as stated in the story, “There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make the village here” (par. 5) . Insisting on the use of the box is apparent to the theme because they blindly follow the traditions. Although the box has no impact on the villagers, rather than that they have always used it and they all believe a story that it was made with historic wood pieces, so they will continue to. Their continuation of the box with no impact on the villagers is not the only thing they perceive as necessary to …show more content…

Each villager arrives, collecting stones, then gathering together with their family. Their participation is among the villagers and throughout the years, the tradition has become meaningless over time. No one appears to know when the lottery started nor does anyone know why. Each villager sees to tradition as a thing they have to participate in and the people cannot imagine revolting against it. Therefore, this relates to the theme about how the villagers blindly follow tradition. So, the villagers’ blindness to the lottery allows murder once a year to legally become part of the town. Consequently, the villagers feel powerless to change so they continue with the lottery and no one stops to question why they are doing something without a true meaning behind

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The village blindly accepts the tradition and have caused bizarre murder to become a part of their culture. It is conveyed throughout the story that the villagers do not know why they do the lottery but nevertheless try to preserve it. The lottery is done for three specific reasons. First off, because it is tradition. Second, because people believe it is used to rid the community of evil.

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The villagers, the rules of the lottery, and real life tone. The villagers are selected by head of each household. "What's more, we often do have to abide by the conditions of our households as a whole – the metaphorical strips of paper that our parents draw"(2) Explained by the writers at Shmoop. The rules of the lottery in the beginning would seem to entail happiness from the winner, based on the generalization of the lottery we already know. Which is why the ending of the story was so shocking.

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Traditions are prevalent, particularly in small towns, like the one in the story, as a way to link families to past generations. The lottery that is held each year concludes with the villagers taking part in a vicious murder. The villagers are not fully aware of the reasons behind the lottery only that it is tradition and it has been taking place for many years. This shows the reality and consequences that come with thoughtlessly following such a bizarre

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In the short story written by Shirley Jackson, she displays what happens to the mindset of the people of this small town when the comfort of tradition is challenged briefly. This story also looks into what can go wrong when blindly following tradition for the sake of simply keeping things the same. There are a few different themes associated with this story. The tone of the story changes once the identity of the lottery is revealed. Jackson used hints like foreshadowing the stoning in the beginning of the story by having the boys collecting rocks.

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In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing and symbolism to develop a theme. In a small town, all the villagers gather up to participate in a tradition that's called “ The Lottery ”. Every villager is told to write their name on a piece of paper, fold it and put it inside the box. Whoever gets chosen gets stoned to death. One literary device that the author uses to develop a theme is foreshadowing, the author uses this by hinting warning signs of what happens if you get chosen in the lottery.

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1) A lottery is usually a celebratory event where a prize is given to a randomly selected winner, but it is not the case in this story. The author withholds information regarding the purpose of the lottery until the very end. Some hints foreshadowing the tragic ending of the story might help us see that this is not a usual setting for a lottery. But those hints are quite subtle so it’s a little difficult to accurately predict the ending. The people of the village who gather for the event don’t seem be at ease.

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The Black Box is very important because the towns peoples feel as if they must follow through with the tradition of using it every year even though the box gets in a worsening position year after year. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.” every year the traditions, or they’ll go back to the stone age. The black box has a very powerful meaning . Mr. Werner, the eldest man of the town claims its a must do in the city, he feels as if horrible consequences will be put upon if they don’t go through with the lottery.

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Analysis: The communities in “The Lottery” and “The Mayflower Compact” blindly adhere to the traditions and guidelines of their people. In “The Lottery”, the villagers’ blind acceptance of the murder ritual allows it to become a permanent aspect of the tradition that occurs every year. Year after year, the fact that the ritual has always been an essential part of the village serves as a sufficient justification for the majority of the population. None of the villagers feel the need to question Old Man Warner or the motives of the lottery because it has been ingrained into the town’s culture. The villagers are oblivious and unaware of the barbaric nature of the lottery.

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“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

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The Lottery itself represents a primal example of loss of innocence; portrayed through the young boys who gather at the town square to collect rocks for the horrors soon to follow. An illustration of how traditions can lose their true meanings and come to represent violence and warfare. Furthermore, “The Lottery” also represents the decaying characteristics of traditions, as symbolized by the town’s black box, in this case where every year, someone’s name is drawn out of the black box and they are stoned to death, by other members who may or may not end up to be family. Nonetheless, it ends up to be the villagers who

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When the winner is selected for the lottery, the stones are used by the fellow villagers to throw them at the person. Each name of the characters hold a meaning for the lottery or one that indicates what the future of the unlucky winner will be. The lottery date is one of the main symbols of the short story. It is set for the reader to believe that the lottery is wonderful event like a nice summer day, instead

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1333 Words | 6 Pages

Full of plot twists, and turns, “The Lottery” relies on its characters to convey a sense of normalcy throughout a majority of the story. The villagers’ acceptance of rituals allows them to act normal while knowingly partaking in a deadly tradition. Jackson’s brilliant use of deceptiveness leaves readers blind sighted as one could never predict this story’s outcome. Jackson’s work is renowned because of its unpredictable shift in tone. June 27, may appear to be a pleasant summer day, but this prediction could not be further from the truth.

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The tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.

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The villagers on “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are afraid to let go of their tradition, the lottery. They are concern of unknown consequences that will happen if they change their old customs. So, for every year, the villagers gather at the square to do the lottery at 10 AM . The villagers are afraid to quit their outdated tradition because they think that changing their old customs will only bring trouble.

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