Symbolizing the Ideas and Beliefs in The Lottery

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Throughout time people have adopted different types of customs and ideas. In “The Lottery” the people from the community are sacrificing in order for their crops to grow. Many lives are at risk and in fear despite the acceptance of their actions.Symbolism is something that represents ideas or qualities of an object. An example of this can be a dove which represents peace.

In the short story The Lottery, it takes place in the late 40s early 50s. The whole story is a contradiction because you would think that having a lottery would be a good thing, but in this story it isn’t. Every year Mr. Graves, who has the most power in the community, gathers them together to have or to do a lottery. As he calls the names of each man to make sure they are there they must get a paper out of “The Black Box” keeping it closed until every man or boy has chosen one. Once they’ve all gotten one they open it and whoever has the paper with a black dot which symbolizes a stones gets their family and within their family they choose again and this time whoever has the black dot gets stoned to death. They believe in sacrificing for the crops which means that every year they sacrifice a person because it’ll help their crops grow. They use the saying “Lottery in June corn be heavy soon.” Meaning that they sacrifice in June and throughout the months the corn will grow .

Symbolism plays a great role in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, by explaining and emphasizing the ideas and beliefs of the people. They believe that if you sacrifice a person, it’ll make their crops grow.

All characters in the story symbolize for something. Mr. Summers symbolizes growing and life which means “summer is the season of the year. Summer of growing, the season of life.” It sho...

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