The story “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948 is about a yearly tradition that to whole town took part in it. Most people have traditions they celebrate every year, and they have symbolic items or meanings to them. Some traditions can be good or bad; however, people continue them anyways. In the story “The Lottery,” there is many different symbolic traditions.
To begin, the first symbolic tradition is the black box. The black box represents the lottery because every person in the town has to draw a slip of paper from the box; however, each paper is blank except for one piece. In the story they talk about replacing the black box every year when they have their lottery. For instance, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” (Jackson 134). The black box was one of the symbolic traditions that
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The assembly represented that everyone in the town is participating in the lottery. The whole town has to be present for the lottery to take place. Mr. Summers would make sure everyone was assembled, and if they was not there he made sure there was someone there to represent them. In the story Mr. Dunbar was not there and Mr. Summers asked “Who’s Drawing for him?” (Jackson 135). They had to have someone in the family there to draw for them if they could not make it to the assembly.
Finally the last symbolic tradition is the stones. The stones are a symbol of death in the story. As the children play and the gather stones and place them in a pile on the corner of the square. The person that draws the slip of paper that isn’t blank gets stone to death. Mrs. Hutchinson was the one that chose the slip of paper this year. As the villagers was throwing the stones, she said “It isn’t fair.” “A stone hit her on the side of the head,” (Jackson 138) and they continued to throw the
The stones in this story can represent and symbolize something that is heartless, hard, and has no emotion such as the people of their society. Even the little children of the society are “brain washed” by the tradition of the lottery
In “The Lottery” the most significant symbol is the tethered black box. The black box had been around for years even for the lotteries before Old Man Warner. It had become shabby and torn and some townspeople believed that it would make more sense to use a newer box while others believed that it needed to stay the same in fear that it would be detrimental for the traditional values they believed in. Mr. Summers, the official of the lottery, had suggested the box be changed several times but not one person seemed to entertain the idea in fear that it would disrupt tradition. (5) The color of the box also represents symbolism. Typically, when someone thinks about the color black they associate that with fear and death and not with something positive. It is very ironic that in the beginning of the story everything was bright and sunny but towards the end the tone become much darker adding to the tone of the
In the story, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are basically the two men in charge of making sure the lottery is conducted each year. Mr. Summers’ name seems to represent the time of the year the lottery is conducted. Mr. Graves represents the grave the chosen lottery victim will be sent to, as he has no problem administering death to those close around him.
Thesis: The short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson found in Perrine's Literature written by Thomas R. Arp is a story full of symbolism.
Jackson’s story presents the issue regarding the habit of turning a blind eye to another’s horrid treatment, if not for anything but for the sake of ritualistic tradition. Mrs. Hutchinson ran into the event late, laughing that she had “[c]lean forgotten what day it was” (Jackson 292). After that, Mr. Summers, the officiator of the lottery, calls out names of the people who are unable to attend the lottery, and asks for the person who will be drawing for them. There were two people missing, Clyde Dunbar, who had broken his leg, and the Watson’s mother. Dunbar’s wife was drawing for him, and it seemed that she was unhappy that she was the one handed this task.
box. We do not always enjoy change, even if it might prove beneficial to us.
The ritual in this story is a lottery where everyone in the town gathers to pick a piece of paper out of a black box. The black box that has been passed down from a long line of ancestors, it is symbolic because it represents death. One member from each family in the village comes up and picks a piece of paper from the black box. One of the pieces of papers is marked with a black dot and whichever family gets the paper with the black dot has to put the paper back. Then the whole family gets to pick again and whoever gets the black dot will be stoned to death as a sacrifice. In “The Lottery” death is symbolized using the color black; the black box, the black dot and the rituals of stoning one to death all represent death. Old man Warner would say “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”. This quote symbolizes death, meaning that if someone is sacrificed, the crops will be plentiful. The towns’ people do not want to change the ways of their ancestors’ rituals, as they have been listening to the oldest man in the town talk about how it would change the ways of
Shirley Jackson wrote many books in her life, but she was well known by people for her story “The Lottery” (Hicks). “The Lottery” was published on June 28, 1948, in the New Yorker magazine (Schilb). The story sets in the morning of June 27th in a small town. The townspeople gather in the square to conduct their annual tradition, the Lottery. The winner of the lottery will stoned to death by the society. Although there is no main character in the story, the story develops within other important elements. There are some important elements of the story that develop the theme of the story: narrator and its point of view, symbolism, and main conflict. The story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, argues practicing a tradition without understanding the meaning of the practice is meaningless and dangerous.
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
The winner of the lottery is stoned to death and this brings out the inherent evil of the villagers. From a very young age, the villagers are groomed to follow tradition as it is evident when the boys would gather and select “the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 247). The boys enjoyed the stoning and appeared to be experts. They preferred the stones they can throw with accuracy so they can impose pain on the unlucky person who won the lottery for the sake of tradition. In the story, Mrs. Delacroix appears to be good friends with Mrs. Hutchinson but once Mrs. Hutchinson picks the unlucky paper with the black dot her demeanor changes and her evil side takes over. The narrator states, “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Hurry Up’ ” (Jackson 252). Mrs. Delacroix did not want to just inflict pain but possibly place the fatal blow. She knew the stoning is a group effort and wanted Mrs. Dunbar to join in. Another villager had evil intentions when they placed stones in the hands of little Davy. Mrs. Hutchinson’s youngest son is coerced into partaking in the massacre of his own mother. The narrator notes, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual . . . they still remembered to use the stones” (Jackson 252), which demonstrates the evil that lies inherently in them and the pleasure the villagers receive from the horrific stoning of a fellow
In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" symbols are used to enhance and stress the theme of the story. A symbol is a person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings. (Kirszner & Mendell 330) The theme of the story is how coldness and lack of compassion can be exhibited in people in situations regarding tradition and values. That people will do incredibly evil and cruel things just for the sake of keeping a routine. Three of the main symbols that Shirley uses in the story is the setting, black box, and the actual characters names. They all tie together to form an intriguing story that clearly shows the terrible potential if society forgets the basis of tradition. The story also shows many similarities between the culture of the village, and the culture of Nazi Germany. How blind obedience to superiors can cause considerable damage to not only a community, but the entire world. Symbolism plays a large role in "The Lottery" to set the theme of the story and make the reader question traditions.
“Although everyone appears to agree that the annual lottery is important no one seems to know when it began or what its original purpose was” (Introduction) This is made clear when in the story it says that the reason the tradition had started was lost years ago. It is also made clear when the box is being describe as an old rugged looking thing and “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson). In the story it also says that so much of the original tradition has been lost or discarded that Mr. Summers who symbolizes a leader who has frighten amounts of power, was able to slip in chips of wood instead of paper into the box (Jackson). Mr. Summers is in charge of the lottery it is even up to him to but the black dot on the paper that decides who will be stoned. The power that Mr. Summer has serves as a symbol of humans blindly following tradition because no one ever challenged Mr. Summers whether it be to figure out or stop the lottery or even to challenge why he is the one in power. Instead the town’s people feel sorry for him because he has a nagging wife and no children. Jackson never explains why Mr. Summers has all this power. Mr. Summers is a bit ironic to because of his last name summers. When someone thinks of summer they think
In "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, there are a series of traditions the story revolves around. The characters in the story don't seem to follow their traditions anymore. The story begins by explaining how the lottery works. The lottery takes place in many other towns. In this town it takes place on June 27 of every year. Everyone within town would gather at the town square, no matter what age. The black box is brought out and each head of the household pulls a small paper out of it. Only one of the papers will not be blank, it will have a black-penciled spot that is put on by the owner of the coal company. The black spot will send someone, from the family who chose it, to death. This is decided by a draw. The family member who pulls out the spotted paper will be stoned to death. After a long period of time, people forget the traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.
It is important in the story since there is no single executioner and it helps to make clear who the enemy in the story is. The white slips symbolize equality among villagers. This means they are all at death risk. One may escape. The three legged stool represents tradition of the lottery. Since the villagers kept distance from it, it symbolizes the conflict of villagers keeping a tradition that no one wants versus their fear of removing it