The Lottery
Autor: Jannisthomas • November 23, 2017 • 1,101 Words (5 Pages) • 666 Views
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Symbolism is also used throughout this short story. The black box symbolizes tradition, death, and betrayal. Everything in the story revolves around the black box and its meanings behind it. The black box symbolizes death tradition in the story. In the story, Old Man Warner explains, “There’s always been a lottery” (608). Old Man Warner is a believer that change is bad, therefore, he believes the tradition of the lottery should continue. His fear is that the younger generations will make the lottery go away. He refers to the younger generation as a “pack of young fools” (608). The villagers not changing the black box is a symbolic function of the town’s tradition. The black box also symbolizes death throughout the story. The black box determines who is going to be picked and stoned to death. Betrayal is another symbolic function of the black box. It is sad to see the villagers turn on their friends and family and has taught them to be numb to the action of killing one of their own villagers. “Old Man Warner was saying, ‘Come on, come on, everyone’” (610). Old Man Warner has no sympathy or regret of stoning a person to death, but he would be against it, if it was happening to him. The symbol that caught my attention the most, was the three legged stool and the black box on the stool. Each leg of the stool represents, God the father, God the son, and the Holy Spirit. The stool represents purity and holiness and the black box represents sin and evil. This is rather ironic.
I personally feel the villagers continue the tradition of the lottery to keep the population of the small community under control. This helps the town from becoming over populated. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generation.
By using irony, imagery, and symbolism, the reader can comprehend and visualize the story, and put it into reality. The literary elements of the short story give the reader the idea of what the characters encounter and how they deal with the death each year during the lottery. The pervasive notion of death in “The Lottery” is shown through irony, imagery and symbolism.
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Works Citied
Jackson, Shirley, and Reg Sandland. The Lottery. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1983. Print.
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