Shirley Jackson wrote a shocking short story titled “The Lottery” full of drama and terrifying horror. In a small town in New England, there is a lottery that is held for every family that lives in this small town. In each of these families, there is one family member that holds the title, “head of the household.” To play the lottery, each family member with this title goes up on stage and picks out a slip of paper from the well known black box. Out of all the slips in the box, only one of those slips has a black dot in the center. The person who picks out that slip gives one of their family members a chance at winning the lottery. The story “The Lottery” isn’t such a bright and cheerful story. The author of this story uses symbols, character traits, and and theme so give us a deep, dark twist. One of the many literary devices used in this story would be symbols. A symbol is defined as, “...A mark or character used to represent an object or character and have a deeper meaning.” A big symbol that is used in the story is the black box. The black box is placed on a three-legged stool This box is where all the slips of papers containing each family’s last name is placed and ready to be picked. The black box is a symbol of bad luck. At least one of the villagers in this small town will be the one to win the lottery and be stoned to death. Although, the black box is old and worn out, they continue to use the black box and not break the tradition. This is an