The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Critical essay

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

In "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to make us aware of the

pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and violence. The story starts off

on a beautiful summer day in a small town. The author describes the day as very

euphoric but strikes a contrast between the atmosphere of the town and the

atmosphere of the people gathered in the square. The atmosphere is subdued,

where the children are "gathered around quietly."

The black box is the central theme or idea in the story. It symbolizes at

first some type of mystery, but as we read the ending we realize that it is

synonymous with doom. Someone's fate lies in an inanimate object, the black

box. We do not always enjoy change, even if it might prove beneficial to us.

The box is symbolic of our loathing of change; it is old and splintered showing

that we cling to what is familiar rather than change and it also symbolizes the

traditions of the community. No one in the little town questions the origin of

the black box, but accept it as an intrical part of their lives. There is always

discussion of people getting a new box, but no one ever really goes

through with it. "Everuy year, after the lottery, Mr.Summers began talking

again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade

off without anything's being done".

The lottery itself is symbolic of the paradox of the human psyche between

compassion on one hand and the thirst for violence and cruelty on the other.

An example of this is when the children are enjoying a break from school,

playing and being children, and suddenly they are being joined by "rational"

adults in stoning a mother to death. It appears that tradition has blinded these

people in an irrational way, making them unable to think of a reason why this

possibly should not be happening.

When forced with the possibility of death, human nature in all its

complexity, comes down to one instinctive urge, that of survival. When Tessie

was in no danger she was gossiping with the other ladies and even encouraged

her husband to go and pick a piece of paper. When Tessie wins the lottery; she

pleads for another chance and screams for mercy. She demands that her

daughters take their chances as well, which is indicative of regression

toward our basic instinct of survival.

The pieces of paper that are lifted away by the breeze is not only symbolic

of the ease with which life can be taken but is also symbolic of vast civilizations

that were doomed to eventual failure for believing in and acting on tradition

and not living according to the word of God. We see that even as Tessie is

being stoned to death does she not question the reasoning behind the lottery,

but why it should be her that has to die.

The story also has some symbolic relevance to when it was written in 1948.

This was a time where a lot of countries were rebuilding there nations due to the

destruction they undertook in World War II. These nations were restructuring

how they handled world problems, and how they ran there own countries.

There was a lot of change after the war; people were not the same because

so many had been affected by it. I think that this story tries to capture some of

that. One example in the book was, "There had been , also, a ritual salute,

which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person

who came up to draw from the box, but this also had changed with time, until

now it was felt necessary only for the official to speak to each person

approaching." I feel that this shows that she interpreted the story to what

was going on in the world around her, and how the world was changing so much.

Traditions that people used to feel very strong about were starting to be broken

down by the change in time, and world around them.

As much as The Lottery symbolizes tradition the driving force through

out the story is sacrifice. The