Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson. This is a short story where the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson suffers during the “lottery”. She has a conflict in the story about her husband being chosen as the “lucky” winner of the lottery. She then draws the “lucky” slip and is stoned to death thus fulfilling the winners prize (Jackson). In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses symbolism, character traits, and conflicts to develop this short story.

In short stories symbolism is usually the literary term that helps develop the story. In the lottery there is many different forms of symbolism, but there are a couple that really stand out. The white slips in the story symbolise the equality that every single villager shares. It states that every single slip is the same,”made up the slips of paper and put then in the box”. It is clearly stating that the night before the lottery takes place they made every little slip of paper they were all the same and the only difference was the one slip that had,”made the night

before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office”. The slips are a form of equalness between all the villagers. It represents the fact that absolutely no one is free from the lottery. Everyone has the same chance to be chosen and everyone has the same chance to not be.(Jackson pg.2,6)
The other form of symbolism in the short story that stands out is the stoning.

It symbolises the willingness that every villager has during the lottery. It says, “Old man Warner was saying, “Come on, Come on everyone.”.(Jackson pg.7) The old man is hurrying everyone to get the deed done. The story then clearly states, “then they were upon her.” which is saying that absolutely everyone was participating in her stoning. The villagers were all willing to continue the tradition of the lottery.(Jackson pg.7) Stoning is also symbolism for death and struggle. Stoning is used in many other stories as a death that ends in struggle. The short story states, “It isn't fair, it isn't right,”Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” Here it clearly says that it was a struggling death. She was screaming and struggling until the last second. Mrs. Hutchinson helped portray the stoning as the symbolism for willingness and for struggle and ultimately death.(Gahr

pg.1)
Character traits are used to describe the personality of the characters in the story. The author uses character traits to successfully describe her character’s personalities building her stories by making her characters stand out. The author makes Mr. Summers someone with a cheerful personality. She does away with the usual cliche antagonist that is evil and is plotting to ruin the protagonists life. The text says,”He was a round-faced, jovial man”.(Jackson pg.1) It is saying that he is a regular man that is naturally jovial, or cheerful and friendly. Mr. Summers is portrayed as a really friendly person. He needs to be a friendly person because he is basically hosting the most depressing event of the year. The author uses this to sort of counter the effects that the lottery has on people making the most cheerful person the one who represents your possible death.
Tessie Hutchinson’s character trait is both odd, but also often seen in short stories. Tessie has a really angry personality she doesn't find anything right with what is happening. The author says,”Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers, “ You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!”(Jackson pg.5). Even when everyone tries to get her to calm down because everyone had the exact same chance to get chosen. Even when she knew that everyone had the same chance and she was fine with it when it wasn't her she was still angry screaming at the top of her lungs,”It isn't fair it isn’t right,”(Jackson pg.7) they still did what they always did and then it was over. The author uses tessie’s character trait of anger to get the story to be more interesting and for it to have a different feel to it.(coursehero.com)
Conflicts in stories are problems or struggles between two opposing forces with the option of being internal and/or external.(A Glossary Of Literary Terms pg.3) Tessie Hutchinson is embarrassed and nervous about being late.(Hauge). She is in denial that she might get picked to be the one that is stoned. She clearly doesn’t want to be chosen when the second and third lotteries get called she is trying to include as many people as possible just so that she can save herself.(Hauge). She clearly has an internal conflict battling with her feelings of wanting to save herself and her feelings of protecting her family… Obviously we know which side of the conflict won when she started to try to involve her married daughter. She is trying to save herself at all costs but to no luck as she was inevitably still chosen and stoned.Tessie showed signs of being in an internal conflict all throughout the story.
An example of an external conflict is the conflict between Tessie Hutchinson and her husband Bill Hutchinson. Tessies husband effectively feeds her to the wolves when he rips the slip out of her hands and shows it to every single person alerting them of her misfortune.(Hauge) The author states,”Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hands.”.(Jackson pg.6) The author makes Tessie get what she deserved and brought upon herself who was trying her best to get more people involved so she had a better chance. Her husband handed her over to the crowd to let her suffer her fate. After he gave her to the “wolves” they all stood there not wanting to be the ones that starting the atrocious act.Every villager had the same thing in mind. They all wanted to get it over with so they could go home and forget about everything, but nobody said anything until someone spoke up and said,”All right, folks.”Mr. Summers said.”Let’s finish quickly.”.(Jackson pg.6) Her husband did nothing to help her out and frankly she was mad about everything screaming and shouting. Her husband and her were in an external conflict throughout the story helping strengthen the different forms of conflict. Tessie and her husband were having an external conflict as the story progressed that eventually ended with her utter demise.
Shirley Jackson uses many forms of literary terms to strengthen her stories. She uses symbolism, character traits, and conflicts to develop the short story into an interesting piece of literature. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to help “set the stage” by having the white slips that symbolise the equal chance that every single person has. She uses stoning as a symbol of willingness and struggle. The characters all participated in the stoning thus helping her story reach an unsettling end. Jackson character traits to set up the story. She makes Mr. Summers a happy joyful antagonist and makes Tessie an angry and unsettling protagonist. This makes the story better by adding a change of pace to the usual protagonist and antagonist that you find in all stories. Jackson also uses the conflicts in this story to give you a different view of everyone. She makes Tessie look less like the usual protagonist. I would personally recommend this story to any person that is tired of the regular old protagonists and antagonists. It will give you a good story with different views different problems. It might sound like a nonsense story but it becomes a great piece of literature when everything comes together. “The Lottery” is a good short story that I wouldn’t mind reading again.