The Lottery

The significance of the following in ‘The Lottery’:
Village Square – that is the meeting place, and usually a lively one, for the towns people in a community; usually a happy and social gathering.
Mrs. Hutchinson’s apron – showed her as a working woman; she even managed to forget what day it amidst her daily tasks in the home.
Old Man Warner – oldest man in the community; describes giving up the lottery like going back in time, like living in caves. It is almost as we would describe giving up computers, air travel, automobiles, etc. if we were to “go back in time”.
Slips of paper – originally used wood, but now too heavy due to the population, so slips of paper was an okay sacrifice of change.
The black spot – black always signifies the dark side; black spot becomes a “blot” which is a negative. The black spot signifies the person who wins the lottery and must be stoned.

The names Graves, Adams, Summers and Delacroix signify upstanding and old names. Graves might refer to death as graves in a graveyard; Adam(s) goes back to Adam and Eve and original sin; Summer is when all things should be happy and bright, yet the 27th of June, which appears all normal and bright to the towns people, is when one of their own is doomed to death; Delacroix has no meaning to me. I believe these names have significance in that they all move toward sin and that we must all die, even though Christ died and saved us from sin. It appears they are ‘hanging’ an individual each year to pay for the sins of the others in this essay.