Religious References And Symbols In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The practice of cultivating has been prominent in many civilizations and regions around the world. Individual groups would take to extreme measures to bring a good harvest season, including taking part in sacrifices. These sacrifices would start with a few individuals, but as hope faded and the crops delayed their arrival, more and more people were sacrificed, as can be seen in the Aztec civilization. Much like the Aztecs, Jackson’s villagers in “The Lottery” have an intrinsic need to perform such a ritual by stoning the victor of a lottery. By utilizing religious references and symbols through her characters, their symbolic meaning, and setting, Shirley Jackson conveys the major theme and overall meaning of the short story: the dangers of

blindly following tradition and the consequences that follows.
Jackson’s short story starts off by recounting a summer’s day in a small village where a lottery is just about to commence. The villagers stand around as the leader of the town, Mr. Summers, calls out the names of the families. This lottery has been held in the town for over seventy years and although some aspects of the tradition have been lost, the cold-blooded villagers still remember to stone the winner to death in the violent end. The story shocks the audience by brutally reminding them that horrors such as these can happen anywhere in contemporary America. Because the story was published post-World War II, the impact of the story’s meaning was more immediate and horrific.
At the outset of the story, Jackson describes the setting.

The day, at first glance, may seem random to the reader. However, upon further notice, it is evident that the date was capriciously chosen. Indeed, June 27th bisects the two weeks that contain the summer solstice on June 21st and Independence Day on July 4th. In Europe, Midsummer’s Day was celebrated on the summer solstice and is known to have several ancient Pagan customs and traditions, including gathering around a maypole and singing and dancing to raise fertility rites. The American Independence Day, on the other hand, represents democracy and, to a degree, justice. The date chosen by Jackson may embody the difference between superstitious and ancient rituals rooted in paganism to the symbolic meaning of democracy. This dynamic duo weaves into the central meaning of the story about the dangers of following tradition and restricting individual rights in sacrifices

(Yarmove).
Just like the date, the setting is vital to understanding the purpose of “The Lottery.” Although the setting is never explicitly stated, there are several indicators to the story being set in New England. The village has a population of a few hundred people, and all the villagers, besides Mr. Summers, seem to work in agriculture. Furthermore, the names are Anglo-Saxon in origin and the lottery is a practice rooted in participatory democracy, much like the type significantly practiced amongst New England settlers during their first few years in America (Yarmove). It is clear that Jackson had an interest in New England’s background of rituals because years after writing “The Lottery,” Jackson composed a book of the witchcraft hysteria, which closely resembles the short story she wrote in 1948. In The Witchcraft of Salem Village, Jackson writes of the townspeople quietly assembling and anxiously talking amongst themselves while the children are elsewhere, completely ignorant of the day’s event. The atmosphere presented in this book is much like the one depicted at the beginning of “The Lottery” (Oehlschlaeger 263). Therefore, it is safe to assume that “The Lottery” was set in New England. Moreover, Tessie’s death by stones reference can also be seen in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, another story set in New England. Although the setting is a significant foundation to the meaning of the story, the characters, their names, and their actions are much more vital to the meaning Jackson was trying to portray.
Among the first few names presented in the short story, Delacroix seems laden with significance as Jackson explains to the readers that the townspeople mispronounce the name “Dellacroy.” Delacroix in French literally translates into “of the cross.” The mispronunciation presented in the story signifies the villagers’ ignorance of the traditional understanding of the Crucifixion and the Christian symbol of martyrdom (Cervo).

The name itself can also be foreshadowing Tessie’s death towards the end of the story. In particular, Mrs. Delacroix is portrayed as a significant member of the family who is swept by the ignorance in following tradition. When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late to the lottery, Mrs. Delacroix is seen as a lighthearted woman who laughs along with Mrs. Hutchinson about the incident. It is also Mrs. Delacroix, however, who throws a large stone in Mrs. Hutchinson’s direction in the end. She is also the only one who exchanges quiet remarks with Mrs. Graves, the silent wife of the somber and silent Mr. Graves. In retrospect, the two people with disturbing last names exchanging commentary may foreshadow Mrs. Delacroix’s horrifying attempt to throw a large stone at Tessie, someone the audience thinks is Mrs. Delacroix’s acquaintance. Mrs. Delacroix’s hypocrisy and ignorance of her actions depict exactly what blindly following tradition can cause individuals to do

(Nebeker).
Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are undoubtedly the leaders of the village. They are the ones who make “up the slips of paper and put them in the box.” Mr. Summers is described as a “round-faced, jovial man” who ironically runs the coal factory, which is the biggest business in town. In the seventh paragraph of the story, Jackson describes Summers’s attire and mannerism by stating, “…in his clean white shirt and blue jeans with one hand resting carelessly on the black box he seemed very proper and important as he talked interminably to Mr. Graves.” Here, Jackson explicitly states that he is the most important man in the town with his hand carelessly tossed on top of the most important object in town. His wealth and power may not just stem from his coal factory, but also from his ability to place the jet-black dot on the slip of the person who dies that year in the lottery. Therefore, despite his lighthearted and amiable name and nature, Mr. Summers gets to initiate the darkest job in the town: killing off a townsperson (Yarmove).
As his name suggests, Mr. Graves is an extremely somber man. He constantly lurks behind Mr. Graves, following him and standing behind him. He and his wife do not speak as much as the other citizens, but because he does help choose who is killed off annually, the reader can assume that he is a sort of silent killer, much like the Grim Reaper (Yarmove).
Although Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are in charge of the lottery, they lack the experience that Old Man Warner possesses. Old Man Warner is a prominent character that strongly implies the theme of the story. To the villagers, he is seen as a person who represents the good old days of stoning and other rituals and traditions that were intact in the town long ago. For as long as Old Man Warner can remember, the lottery has always existed and Old Man Warner believes the lottery should be kept for decades to come. Old Man Warner recalls a time when the lottery was taken very seriously, and all that partook in it then remembered the profound meaning of the ritual. However, in present day, Old Man Warner believes that they are taking the lottery with a grain of salt. This can be seen in a subtle manner when he makes a remark about Mr. Summers: “Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody” (Griffin). When Mr. Adams simply remarks that the neighboring areas are giving up on the lottery, Old Man Warner dismisses the thought of it by reciting a saying: “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” When he says this, no one tries to find the logic behind the saying, which is that stoning a scapegoat will ward off bad luck and bring a staple crop, like corn (Bogert 46). Because he is the oldest in the town, everyone takes his word on everything he says about the lottery. This shows that even though the villagers did not live during the old days, they follow tradition and what is left of it blindly by what Old Man Warner reinforces through his blunt words and disapproving attitude towards the younger generation.
Along with the Delacroix family, the Hutchinson family also illustrates undetected hypocrisy. Tessie Hutchinson’s actions throughout the story illustrate what happens in a dire situation such as a sacrifice. When her family is chosen from the drawing, Jackson pushes her to her predatory instincts by turning her against her own flesh and blood. In her final minutes, Tessie tries to improve her situation by adding members of the town into the killing pool when Tessie says, “’There’s Don and Eva. Make them take their chance.’” Much like Tessie, her children also defy the myth of family love. When Nancy and Bill Jr. opened their slips of paper, they “both beamed and laughed” because neither of them were chosen to be killed by the villagers (Coulthard).
Although Tessie Hutchinson can be seen as subconsciously hypocritical, her last name suggests that Jackson thought of her more as a rebel. The name of the victim in the story matches that of Anne Hutchinson. Due to her Antinomian beliefs, which were considered heretical by the Puritan hierarchy at the time, she was banished from Massachusetts in the year 1638. Much like Anne, Tessie attempted to free herself from the grasp of the gruesome villagers. In fact, she did not stop, even when the villagers readied themselves to perform the ritual. The last line of the whole story is Tessie’s as she screamed, “‘it isn’t fair, it isn’t right.’” Despite knowing that she would not survive this, she continued fighting and urging the villagers that their rituals were morally wrong, much like Anne Hutchinson when she tried to defy religion through her Antinomian beliefs up until she was exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Oehlschlaeger 261).
The stoning of Tessie Hutchinson in the end is swift and routine to the bloodthirsty villagers. They rapidly grasp stones and begin throwing them in Mrs. Hutchinson’s direction. Jackson’s eerie ending leaves the reader in awe as the meaning of the story slowly sinks in to the reader. Despite the criticism Jackson received for her cynical viewpoint of humans, the story’s purpose as a metaphor leaves a strong impact on the audience: society’s strong grasp on harmful traditions and rituals fuels the primitive need to sacrifice, which can often times lead to atrocious ends.