Inhumanity In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery”

Mohandas Gandhi once said , “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” There was a story about a lottery that took place in a small town where all the townspeople had a certain event that happens every summer which kept everything stable as long as they stuck to tradition and their culture. The two main people that run this event during the summer are Mr.Summers and Mr.Graves; they influenced many inhumanity actions that occurred throughout the town. In the story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson illustrates the issues associated with mankind's tendency to follow tradition without question, with her use of tone and symbolism you're able to see the different ways in which this society can be so oblivious

to the wrong practice of this “lottery” activity that occurs .
The acts of inhumanity that taken place throughout the town happen simply when the start of summer occurred which brought much suspense and worry to everyone even when the days got sunnier and hotter the mood got worse and always came back to a dark and gloomy time of the year which brought doubt to everyone's heart.

The one part in the story that demonstrated a scene of inhumanity was when “Away from the pile of stones in the corner , and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” the significance was the mood was rather set as dark and twisted feeling as they gather together and laughed instead of smiling because it's summer there actions demonstrate that the tone of summer bought much fear in the eyes of everyone which brings a more negative vibe towards the pile of rocks that were gather and there's more to them then just a pile of rocks. The another actions that illustrated the main feel or tone throughout the story is when Mr.Summers arrived in the town square carrying a black wooden box.The black box seemed well cared for and praised as a icon object which had much power in the dark twisted way it is the color of black which is symbolic for the form of death which seemed to have much unease for the villagers.This was explained through the movements of Mr.Summer as

he stated “little late today,folks.” then followed with the postmaster, Mr Graves , followed him , carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the town square and Mr.Summers put the black box down and it set much disturbances throughout all the villagers.The many steps that were taken to have the black box revealed a secret within the heart of the town demonstrating that there is death upon all who dare step forth the black box rather than having a town with happy summers there start of summer starts with a dark appearance of a black box of death which illustrates a issue of inhumanity the significance is explained with the actions of Mr.Summers & Mr.Graves which ends with the black box being set down on a three legged stool and sending waves of tension to everyone who surrounds it.
The another way the author choose to illustrate how inhumane traditions can escalate/become more twisted and cruel is the event of when the villagers gather around square town and waited for the dark event of picking from the black box which is a symbol of fear that was demonstrating when people started to receive paper that was handed to them by Mr.Summer as he stated.

“That was done pretty fast , and now we've got to be hurrying a little more to get done in time.”The significance of the box illustrates that the symbolism the author wants to represent through tradition is that the townspeople have is that there's always the event of the black box and the slips of paper that have the power to decide the fate of all the villagers.The another key point that was made through this is that no matter what happens Mr.Summers who is in charge of this tradition and is the only one that can stop this tradition and culture that has been going on for ages simply because it is something that always has been done and not questioned at all once to think if this can be stopped is all up him this illustrates how mankind is so strong to tradition that when trying to break away from it it seems to be the impossible without judgment or fear kicking in. The main symbolism that was demonstrated through the inhuman traditions was the act of all the villagers having no willpower to stay up and not follow tradition that they knew were inhuman and injustice the author illustrates this by having the

symbolism laid through the tradition they had which “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box , they still remembered to use stone.” This significance explains that no matter how much they tried to change the way they did the tradition or what ritual they did in order for the black box to do its job the townspeople still ended up remembering to use stone and that verified that no matter how cruel or wrong a certain tradition is it can escalate to the highest peak of wrongdoing tradition will always be rock solid in the heart of the people and their culture because it resides in the hearts and souls of the villagers and that's finally demonstrated the author's point of symbolism used throughout the black box and the pile of stones that were gathered together represent the inhumane traditions that were used throughout the story.
In conclusion the acts of inhumanity and tradition that are inhumane are represented throughout all the actions that the town has endured started off with the tradition of summer and the black box and how fast traditions stay to one culture forever. This overall reveals that mankind's tendency to follow traditions without question was the use of tone and symbolism throughout the story. The way the author ended up illustrating inhumanity of the lottery and the inhumane traditions throughout the villagers was with the use of her tone and symbolism.