The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Analysis

Introduced to the story as the main characters are Tessie Hutchison, and her husband, Bill Hutchison. Even though Tessie gets late to the lottery for the basic reason of being held up while cleaning dishes, she actually emerges to be the final winner of the annual lottery. Unlike most instances where individuals could enormously celebrate winning the lottery, which actually means winning a good sum of money, Tessie does not rejoice in this fortune. She yells at people claiming that it was not fair (Jackson, n. p. This, therefore, symbolizes the tradition of the lottery practice. On the other hand, despite the preservation of this tradition, which is represented by the black box, the villagers do not show loyalty to it as they do not attempt to repair or replace it even though it was getting damaged.

Other forms of symbolism used on the short story include the lottery itself which symbolized a passed down traditional practiced which has been preserved. There is also the act of stoning Tessie Hutchison, which symbolizes group violence, which is also a theme covered by the story. As well, the color is the box, the black both, symbolized the effects of the lottery, which is death. Summers in the short story is attributed to the dark character of helping individuals get killed. The character Mrs. Graves is also ironic. From the word grave, it could be assumed that she stood responsible for the death of the winner. However, she is the one who actually helps Mr. The author narrates that the black box kept getting shabbier after each annual lottery.