Sacrifice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a shocking story where a small town holds a lottery to determine who will be the chosen one for their yearly human sacrifice. In the end, the person who gets picked by the lottery is stoned to death by the village. Jackson uses little setting, symbolism, and P.O.V to paint an oddly disturbing theme: refusing to change a towns tradition and religious way of thinking can be lethal.

Jackson gives the reader little information with setting on where the town is located and only describes certain things. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (Jackson, 373) this shows a mid-day in summer

in the village. Jackson wanted the readers to believe that the town was normal and innocent, but hides the terrifying secret. “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program— “(Jackson,373) this can point towards the village is small and has limited space to hold events.
In this story the objects symbolizes some religious meanings to the lottery. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;” (Jackson,373) this reveals that the kids were picking up smooth stones.

The reason they picked up smooth stones, because it would be a slow death with the flat surface and rounded edges. Unlike the weathered rough and sharp rocks, it would be a fast death. Jackson indicates that the children find this uncharacteristic activity normal in this murderous event, and that the children easily follow the elders. These next two objects used in this story, are both religious. The black box is used to draw pieces of paper for the lottery, which is it rested above a three-legged stool.” The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three- legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and

Mr. Summers set the black box down on it” (Jackson,373) The black box is the key between life or death for every single townsperson, and it also holds the evil acts that have taken place in the past and the ones to come. “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,373). The color of the box is black, and black is a universal symbol for evil or death. The three-legged stool can be represented as the Christian Trinity. Each leg represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three-legged stool that holds the black box of death, has an ironic build to it because the Christian Trinity represents purity and holiness, but the black box represents sin and evilness. This is weird because they manipulate the religion to support the violence that they do, thinking that it’s okay to stone a person to death because of religious motives, and that God would have wanted the them to act out and deem who can live.
In addition, the central conflict of this short story is person vs society. This conflict comes into play when the rules of society meets the characters. In this story, every character is at conflict with society because the victim is picked by the lottery, but the Hutchinson’s’ is pointed as the main conflict of this passage. No one in the village knows the real purpose of the lottery. And the residents of the town acts like the lottery is an interruption of their daily schedule,” "Well, now." Mr. Summers said soberly, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work.” (Jackson,375) people in the village act the way they do because no one messed the order. The lottery has been there since the first villagers settled, so they went on with it. The only reason parts of the lottery changes are because one can remember. This story best represents what it looks like when people do not question tradition because no one else does. which robs them of their freedom to live.
Lastly, Jackson uses a third person view that detached the narrator from the story.

Rather than telling us what the characters are thinking or feeling, the narrator just simply shows the process of the lottery unfolding. This further emphasizes the shocking nature of the ending, as the readers only indication of the lottery's true purpose is from the villagers' nervous behavior.” The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play…. Soon the men began to gather. surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands.” (Jackson,373) when it time for the lottery everyone change their demeaner, and stands in line like a flock of sheep waiting to be

guided.
In conclusion, readers might think this story is just fiction and has no meaning to it, but in every part of the world has religious persecution that happens in their way. So, Jackson decide to write this one with disturbing theme to show us no matter how crazy or ridiculous the tradition is, it still happens under the public eye of other societies.