Symbolism  in The Lottery

Symbolism  in The Lottery

Symbolism plays an integral part in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson to support the theme of civilization and traditions. The plot development starts in a village square where the whole villages have gathered to participate in the lottery. The day is described as clear and sunny on 29th June which shows it was just another typical day for the community to go about their business. The literary element of symbolism takes shapes in the early plot development because the author introduces a perfect day which cannot possibly go wrong. To understand the true meaning of “The Lottery” story, one has to read until the end of the story to grasp what it meant to the community. The Lottery depicts a community that is illogically following old traditions without any substantial meaning or reason. The story uses symbolism to show how ancient traditions negatively continue to affect civilization development in society through practices that are outdated and inhumane, which is depicted through the lottery, the big black box, and the act of stoning.

The title of the story “The Lottery” has been used to symbolically show how old traditions are disguised as beneficial to the people when, in reality, it acts as bondage. The old tradition was entirely affecting the community daily activities because it was a requirement for everyone to be present regardless of their status in the society. People had to leave their regular routines and “Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting, rain, tractors and taxes” (Jackson 140).

This shows that the people had more important thing to worry about but the old traditions was hindering their shift to civilization. When Mr Summers started the process of conducting the lottery, he called for help, but even men were hesitant to help. The ritualistic act of holding the lottery symbolizes that the event was not appealing to many people and the people were just afraid of letting old uncivil traditions die with time. The compatibility of the old traditions was not aligning with the current state of modern society, and there was a general feeling that “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago” (Jackson 140). This symbolizes that the old traditions were now outdated and the new modern world required civilization rather than blindly following a distorted ritualist culture that people had forgotten about and only retained the popular one such as the lottery event. The original meaning of the lottery did not exist anymore and most people had no idea what it really symbolized in the community. The act of losing the original paraphernalia of the lottery symbolizes that the community was lost and they were only following old traditions blindly. There is a growing concern on young generation who do not seem to care more about the traditions, and even the host (Mr Summers) of the lottery says “…we better get started, get this over with, so we can go back to work” (Jackson 141). The statement symbolizes that the people were no longer interest to attend the lottery, but they were doing so to fulfil the old traditions. The villagers were living in a civilized world and thus symbolized that it was evident they were more pressing issues than attending the lottery. The name lottery symbolizes a scenario where the winner takes home prizes such as gifts or money and they automatically become wealthy. However, after the black wooden box is opened and Mr Hutchinson becomes the winner, his wife Tess says he was not given enough time and “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (144). This symbolizes that the winner was not to be awarded by something good if a person who won complained that it was not fair for him/her to win. The fact that people were not interested in the lottery anymore shows that it had become a symbol of slavery. The statement support “The Lottery” title as symbolic in showing how old traditions were a limitation to the attainment of civilization in this particular community.

The big black box symbolically carries the horrors of death and pain the community had experienced for a long time for illogic adherence to old traditions. Mr Summers was the custodian of the box before the day of the lottery, but in other times it was placed anywhere and only became during the time of the lottery. There was a feeling that the black box had become distorted with time, and its originality had been washed away with time. The black box was initially made with good intentions, but it has changed because the originality was no longer there because it “grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black…and in some places faded or stained” (140). This symbolizes that time had worn out the originality of the black box, and the current generation did not know what its original content was thus the old traditions were marred and stained with distorted beliefs. A three-legged stool was used alongside the black box, and this can be interpreted to symbolize Christianity where one’s beliefs are limited to a confusing trinity of the God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The black box contains horrors of an old tradition that continued to put the people through pain and misery for beliefs that are possibly outdated and uncivilized. Jackson writes “Although the villagers had forgotten about the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (144). Jackson incorporates symbolism to show how the community was not conscious of why they were participating in the lottery. The big black box was not taken care of well because it could be found anywhere and thus it was not adequately protected in terms of the content it carried which symbolized that it had been altered and there was no way it could have remained the same as the original box. This symbolizes why the black box had retained only the painful and inhumane traditions which were affecting the community and thus there was a need to eliminate the irrelevant old traditions that advocated for death.

The author has used the stoning of the winner to symbolize the fate of following an old tradition blindly by the community. The stoning of the winner symbolizes how the ancient traditions are disguised as the best thing for the community while the truth it is meant to bring pain and turmoil. The Bible offers a similar ordeal where stoning was used as a form, of punishment for people who were accused of adultery. The people knew that participation in the lottery meant that if one becomes the winner, then there was a chance that one of them would be the victim and when Tessie opened the black paper with a dot inside it “there was a stir in the crowd” (144). The fate that Tessie was facing shows that the people were imprisoned by the old tradition which forced them to follow its ritualistic nature without questioning. The Bible dates back centuries ago and this symbolically shows how it was not outdated in regard to the civilization life the community was living. The blindly following of the bible teachings symbolically correlates \with the community following of old traditions which was not meant to serve them positively. It was symbolic because “someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles” (144) so he could use to stone his mother. The participation of everyone in the competition every young child symbolizes the likelihood of the old traditions being passed to the next generation. This meant that the ancient traditions would keep imprisoning the community if nothing was going to be done or changed to the big black box. There was a change on the young generation who could not identify with the lotteries, and Mrs Adam says that “Some places have already quit lotteries” (142). This shows that there were people who had done away with this tradition because it did not correlate with civilization. Tessie stoning shows that the old traditions targeted the innocent in the community and forced even the family members to join in their condemnation to death. The stoning of Tess offers symbolism on how cultures inhibit the growth of civilization where people fear to abandon primitive traditions even when they believe it is irrelevant.

The old traditions such as “The lottery”, the big black box and the stoning ritual show how it limits civilization by following an ancient tradition can impact the people negatively because they are likely to go through the pain and inhumane ritualistic sacrifices. Christians or other religions are inclined to culture and beliefs that do not correlate with our communities, thus affecting the transition to individual reasoning and civilization. The Bible teachings were written many years ago, but they are still practised today, but people know very little about what it is about and only come out to celebrate Christmas. Tess represents the adulterous woman in the Bible that was about to be stoned to death for engaging in adultery while the men involved went unpunished. The Lottery story is symbolic from the title until at the end where the winner is rewarded by facing death without any substantial reason. The story is meant to trigger how blindly old traditions and religions that limit us from seeing the world in a whole new level than imprisoning our minds to an illusion that does not serve our interests.