Imagery And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
The symbolism in “The Lottery” Normally when we think of a lottery, we anticipate it to be a victory for us being that we’ve just won a lot of money. As of February 2017 the last power ball was worth $233.6 million which is definitely something readers would want to win. But, in this case the lottery is not something readers want to prevail in. When the lottery is “won” in the story the character is sentenced to death by stoning. Jackson notes, ‘Now, I'll read the names--heads of families first--and the men come up and take a paper out of the box…’ ( Jackson 2). This determined what villager was to be stoned to their demise. The slips of paper mentioned in the story are stored in a black box which symbolizes the tradition of the lottery. In “The Lottery” Jackson uses
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She uses this to symbolize tradition by showing that the boys knew what was going to happen and preparing for it. She also continues by saying, “...and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner, the oldest man in town…” (Jackson 1). Therefore supporting that this tradition has been happening for many consecutive years. The final way Shirley tells us that it is a tradition is by writing, “Mr.Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” (Jackson 1). This coincides with the claim that it is used to symbolize death and tradition because it tells how much the black box means to the villagers and they couldn’t bare to replace it because of its symbolism. Throughout the story the black box is a key point that is constantly mentioned over and over. By linking the meaning it has to the villagers and how much it is mentioned, we can observe that the black box is a key symbol in “The
She uses this to symbolize tradition by showing that the boys knew what was going to happen and preparing for it. She also continues by saying, “...and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner, the oldest man in town…” (Jackson 1). Therefore supporting that this tradition has been happening for many consecutive years. The final way Shirley tells us that it is a tradition is by writing, “Mr.Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” (Jackson 1). This coincides with the claim that it is used to symbolize death and tradition because it tells how much the black box means to the villagers and they couldn’t bare to replace it because of its symbolism. Throughout the story the black box is a key point that is constantly mentioned over and over. By linking the meaning it has to the villagers and how much it is mentioned, we can observe that the black box is a key symbol in “The