Themes And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The Plot

The Lottery begins by the action of the children in the town gather first and collect stones, then the adults arrive, and they chatting with each other for a while before they call the children back to the order. The lottery is the process to find a person win the lottery, and that can be anyone from the village. The ritual start at ten a clock in the morning and is conducted by Mr. Summer, who “had time and energy to devote to civic activities” of this small town (Shirley 13). After the random of papers selection which is done by the “heads of households in each family”from the black box, Bill Hutchinson gets the winning ticket (Shirley 14). However, the winner does not seem as happy as they should. Mrs. Hutchinson starts arguing

The black box in the connection between the villagers and the tradition. It is so powerful that “no one like to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” ( Shirley 13). The color itself is black with is represented for evil who is holding other people lives. Therefore, the black box is the symbolism of the powerful tradition that put fear into people, so no one would dare to question what they have been doing.

Another symbolism is the village itself. Jackson does not just tell a story of this small town, but it is represented for the entered society where people blindly follow tradition. Also, the village represented for the reality of human society. People are selfish, and they are willing to change, to go against the people they know, or even the people they love. It is also reminding the readers that in reality we can’t really trust anyone because they might change before we would

The lottery is the symbol of luck. however, in the story the luck is ironically opposite. usually, the winner of the lottery will get a prize and celebrate for the lucky event, but it is horrifying for whoever “lucky” to get the winning ticket in the story. Every villager, include Mr. Summer and Mr. Grave who are the most powerful people in the villager, has to participate in the lottery where everyone will get the same chance of luck to be a victim. That is why the name of the ritual is a symbolism as well as the irony of the entire story that upsets many readers because the ending is nothing like they