The Lottery Winner

From the very first moment we can think, we are taught to follow orders. We follow traditions and we do what we’re told, but never questioning why we do things could lead to disastrous events. In The Lottery Shirley Jackson warns us about the dangers of blindly following tradition. Jackson’s use of foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony admonish the public of what could go wrong if we never question tradition. The story starts off with the town gathering around for the annual lottery. The men talk, the women gossip and children run around playing and gathering rocks. The gathering of stones seems innocent enough, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” The kids are gathering rocks to throw, of course the true purpose of the stones isn’t revealed until the end of the story. This is a town that deeply values tradition, they don’t quite understand why, but they do. They frown upon any sort of change, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” They won’t even replace the black box, whose purpose is nothing more than to hold pieces of paper, in their dear lottery. If they won’t even change a box, the reader is left to wonder why they would be gathering stones. At first it seems like the kids are just being kids and picking up rocks but as the story continues and the town’s old fashioned way of living is revealed the reader can’t help but think of stoning. The whole town is gathering around and people are getting stones ready, put this scene back in the eighteen hundreds and someone is surely going to be stoned. In this town who never strays from tradition it’s hard not to think the same thing won’t happen. The black box is literally just the box that holds pieces of paper for the townspeople to draw during the lottery, but it symbolizes much more than that. It’s a representation of the towns