The Symbolism Of Children In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Jackson uses the children as a symbol in order to convey a message that ignorance can lead to people following tradition blindly. For example, “The children had stones already and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles”(34). This reveals that even the children participate in the ritual because the children are the new generation and will be the ones responsible for continuing the tradition. When Davy is given the pebbles, there is no mention of him reacting, which demonstrates that the children do not ask questions about the traditions. A connection to today’s society is that children are told to simply follow rules and are expected to not question those rules. Adults in communities