The Lottery Allegory

Written in 1948 Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” was not very well received by the public during that time. Lots of confusion and backlash came toward the author about the overall message, and what it was about. It instantly made the publisher lose hundreds of subscribers. Fresh off the heels of the WW2 and The Holocaust, this story can be seen as an allegory toward it. Readers can realize this with one of the general messages of the story is to not follow blindly, and to think about the impact that your actions have on the world around you. "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, is a masterful display of symbolism being used develop a deeper meaning, about how blindly following tradition can be destructive. This is shown through symbols such as

The black box symbolizes the evil and violence that is hidden within their tradition of the lottery. This is made clear through many quotes in the story including this, “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” (Jackson 2). When knowing the symbolism is there the deeper meaning behind the quote is clear. The box itself is very old and faded, which imply the tradition is ancient and has been passed down from generation to generation, like the tradition itself. If the reader thinks of the box in the same way they’d think of any other tradition, it helps visualize the message the author is trying to convey Many more symbols can seen in this story, this just being an example of

Tessie being selected as the winner means she gets stoned, and one of her final quotes helps understand the meaning behind her character. In her words “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair” “(Jackson 8). These words spoken by Tessie as she is about to be stoned highlights the same illogical nature of violence that the winners of the lottery’s before faced. That fact she is being selected simply because she happened to draw the marked slip underscores the senselessness of the violence to come. At the same time, her words also highlight the danger of blindly following tradition even more. She followed the tradition no matter the consequences, and now she must face