Symbolism in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

Essay, Pages 4 (832 words)

Views

157

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a strange story set in a small traditional town. Shirley Jackson uses symbols throughout the entire story to explain the theme. By doing so it helps the readers understood the message Jackson is passing through. Jackson uses tone, symbols, and settings to fetch a theme to her readers. By doing, so she made a connection between the black box and old man Warner as the main point and example of the story. The tone and setting in “The Lottery” are the main principal details that give the audience a comprehended feeling of what the story is about or visualize how the story is set around that period.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Symbolism in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

During the beginning of the story, Jackson was very particular in describing the setting of the story.

“The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely, and the grass was richly green” (Jackson, 139). Starting off the story gets the reader to imagine the town being beautiful and welcoming to observe.

Shirley Jackson puts her audience in a place whereby, her audience sees the town as normal. Everyone goes about their day and life their life without any worries. the reader reads the story they start to realize the tone switching by giving the reader a whole new point of view about “The Lottery.” The story becomes very secretive and eccentric as the reader proceeds with the reading and makes the reader questioned the author; why is done she start to welcoming and why did it turn out to be horrible, sad, betrayal etc.

the main character old man Warner, the oldest man in the town and knows more about the whole traditional ritual than anyone in that town. Old man Warner being the main symbol and character of the story plays a huge role in Jackson’s story “The Lottery.”

According to Jackson story, old man Warner has partaken in servers of the lotteries with approximately seventy-seven lotteries so that gives the reader full understanding about which old man Warner is, and he knows about “The Lottery” more than anyone in that town. Old man, Warner represented the tradition of the lottery in the town. When reading, notice how the younger ones came up to Old man Warner telling him that in some places in the town would not be holding “The Lottery” then he looked at them. According to the book, Old man Warner thinks the younger generation is a “pack of crazy fools” (Jackson, 142) for thinking the lotteries would not carry on forever. “They’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody works anymore, live that way for a while” (Jackson, 142). According to old man Warner, “The Lottery” is the only thing keeping everyone together and stable. It the only source of sacrifice to restore their crops for good, according to line 30 “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, Corn be heavy soon” (Jackson, 142).

Old man Warner likes this method because that’s how it been from the very start. So, changing the whole traditional ritual would be like an abomination to the eye of his and past generation. The next main symbol in “The Lottery” is the black box, the black box represents the nonappearance of tradition. It because the ideas about the black box were not passed down, but instead it the ideas of doing rituals that were passed down through old and new generations. The black box holds the rules and holds the whole town together from any danger. Throughout the entire story, readers were able to see how Jackson made use of the symbols, settings, and tone to create a welcoming, traditional, scary, sad, and entertaining story. The way Shirley Jackson narrow down the tone and setting of this story makes her wrote different from other authors and makes you questioned the author. It puts you in a spot of not fully understanding the story but the only way to understand the story is by paying attention to them and symbols. She made her reader think the town and people were normal and, they were not. The main character is Old man Warner and the main symbols is the black box, and old man Warner. Those are the two oldest traditions in the town. This could be connected to today society, we all have that tradition thing we keep passing down from generation to generation, it common among families, the government, the royal families, etc.

“The Lottery” was published in New York June 26, 1948. It meant to indicate “The pointless violence and general inhumanity” (Don D'Ammassa), that Jackson discerns in every American life. Jackson lived in Bennington, Vermont when she wrote “The Lottery” and her inspiration for this story came from her ongoing argument with the local school and her neighbors.