The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

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Likewise, from the beginning, we have been taught that the color white has always symbolized peace, purity, and happiness. And the color black has always been a symbol of evil, unhappiness, & Death. The White Slips represented life and the black dot on that white slip symbolized the death of the person. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. 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” (132). Mrs. Hutchinson was so selfish she tried to make her daughters pick a lottery too. Despite knowing that daughters pick their lotteries with their husbands. ““There are Don and Eva,” Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. “Make them take their chance!” Daughters draw with their husbands’ families, Tessie,” Mr. Summers said gently. “You know that as well as anyone else.”””” (131). It seemed like it didn’t matter to them at all. They just wanted to get done with it. ““All right, folks,” Mr. Summers said. “Let’s finish quickly” (131). The people did not think for once what effect it’s going to have on Tessie Hutchinson’s kids. How sorrow will they feel seeing their mother’s death in front of their eyes and not be able to do anything to save the person’s life who gave them their life.

In conclusion, the author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson shows us through the use of Symbolism and Imagery, that the society begins to be tinted with dark illusion because evil can be present in the most innocent environment. The author also used common objects like a black box, stones, and white slips of paper throughout the story, which showed superstitious thinking being a huge cause of the narrow-mindedness and brutality among the people. Sometimes, in life, it’s really beneficial for us to be different from the crowd.

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Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery. " Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Robert Funk. 11th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2017. 127-132. Bookshelf Online.