"The Lottery" Question 1

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is an interesting, yet unsettling story, and it displays several examples of symbolism. One example is the town square. At the start of the story, everyone gathers in the town square. The town square may symbolize the gathering place of evil. So in a sense, it could represent hell. After everyone gathers at the town square, Mr. Summers carries out a black box which holds slips of paper. One slip has a black dot on it. The slip of paper with a black dot on it decides who gets stoned. One could say that the black box, along with the slip of paper with the black dot, symbolizes death in this story. Then, if this is the case, the rest of the papers symbolize life. I’m not totally sure what Mrs. Hutchinson’s apron symbolizes, but perhaps when she dries her hands on the apron, she is “cleansing” herself from the evilness that is taking place. I think that Old Man Warner symbolizes the older generations of the village not wanting to give up a tradition, even though the tradition is purely evil. When other “younger” towns decide to give up their “lotteries”, Old Man Warner calls them crazy. “’They do say,’ Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, ‘That over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.’ Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said. ‘Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them.’” (Jackson, p. 408)