Symbolic Irony In Tessie Hutchinson's Sacrifice

The most significant, unique, and symbolic name of the townspeople is Tessie Hutchinson, which means “to reap of the resurrection” (Nebeker 106). Her being selected as the sacrifice seems ironic since her name is a massive indication to her imminent death. According to Helen Nebeker, it is “deliberate symbolic irony that Tessie should be the victim, not of hatred or malice, or primitive fear, but of the primitive ritual itself” (Nebeker 106), explaining that her name was reaped from the box naming her as the sacrifice for the entire village, as her name indicates.