Symbols In The Lottery

Symbolism In “The Lottery” Everyone in the world has or will experience the death of best friends or loved ones. No matter what anyone does, they can’t overpower death. Our world is full of it, whether it is natural death, killing, or even suicide, and the town in Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is not any different. In this short story one person is brutally murdered every year just so they possibly will have a good harvest. The Villagers pull slips from a black box and the one that picks the slip with the black dot gets stoned to death. Adults and children are forced to kill one of their own family and friends on June 27, but they seem to know it is important. They attend this ritual, forgetting more about it every year. In the short story
“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to create a mood. In this short story the main piece of symbolism is the black box.
“The rest of the year, the box was put way, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there” (Jackson 2). This box could possibly represent multiple things, but there's only two that are correct. The black box represents death and evil. This is proved by the fact that the color black means death and one person dies every time they perform the ritual. Secondly, when the box is not in use, it is not respected or liked very much. In the story everyone seems to avoid the box unless they have to go near it. “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… By now it was no longer completely black, but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” (Jackson 1-2). These quotes from the text show that the villagers don’t seem to take care of of the black box proving that it is bad and bad most likely means evil. The black box brings an evil or creepy mood to the story and if the box was replaced with a white box the mood would be completely
different. The second piece of symbolism in “The Lottery” is the people.
“Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box, and it was then taken to the safe of Mr. Summers coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning” (Jackson 2). The night before the lottery Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers prepared the slips of paper that would be used for the lottery. Mr. graves put the white slip of paper in the box and Mr. Summers put the black dot in the box. “ It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office” (Jackson 7). The mood of the word summer is happy and warm, but the word graves provides the mood sad, gloomy, and even death. In the story these words do not mean this. Mr. Summers who was handling the black box and put the black dot in the box seems evil because he handled the evil stuff. On the other hand, Mr. Graves, whose name sounds evil never touched the box or the black dot. He only touches the white slips that represent good and the three legged stool. All in all the different names in the story bring an evil and a happy
mood. The final piece of symbolism in “The Lottery” is the stones. “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Jackson 7). In the story the stones are an important part of the ritual. The people know that the stones are the most important thing about the ritual and still use them even though they have forgotten the rest of the ritual. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix-- the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"--eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys” (Jackson 1). Since the kids gathered stones and guarded them, it shows they realize the stones are important and even they seem to be excited to stone the winner of the lottery. Even though the people know the stones are important the stones still represent death and evil. They also show that they want the winner of the lottery to suffer. This thought brings a sad mood or maybe an angry mood. All in all, the stones are a vital part of the symbolism in “The Lottery.” Some may say that the stones do not represent death or evil but they represent a new beginning. Although this is a good claim there is not any proof to this claim in the text. They may say this because in many religions after you die you go to a better place (heaven in Christianity). In the normal world black means death and evil and white means good and pure, so why would it be any different in “The Lottery?” Since the person that gets the black dot dies, it means that they are evil and that the people want them to pay for their sins (or bad things they have done). This would prove that the people just want them to suffer and don’t want to give them a second chance. If the person that gets the black dot was getting a second chance they most likely wouldn’t scream and say it wasn’t fair. "It isn't fair, it isn't right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her” (Jackson 7). They would most likely be happy and cry of joy. All in all the stones do not represent a second chance which would create a happy mood. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the author creates a mood by using symbolism. These people have a black box, ironic names, and kill one person each year with stones. This leaves the reader with many questions. Should the towns people keep performing the ritual? If they do, is killing a person for a ritual right? Lastly, what is the real reason that they perform the ritual? While readers leave the story, they wonder why these people are excited about killing someone, but scared to at the same time.