Death

Authors Note: This piece is about the symbols throughout the short story "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson.

There are many symbols throughout the short story "The Lottery"  written by Shirley Jackson.  The short story is about a village that has a tradition where they gather at the town square once a year. The mayor  will have each family representative pick from the black box , if the paper has a black circle then everyone from that family will pick. Which ever family member gets the circle will then be stoned from the whole village. A symbol is something that represents something and I will tell you about two major ones.

First off,  one symbol that really stuck out to me is the black box. In the short story it says that it is very warn out with many splinters and it is discolored. That description shows me that it is very old and it has been used a lot, so it may represent tradition. Although the box is black to, and the color black stands for death. Towards the end of the story death occurs so maybe the black box meant something.

Secondly, the stones are a symbol too. In the first sentence from the short story it says that the children were collecting stones. Little did I know that those rocks were meant for something. At the very end Tessie had unfortunately received the paper with the black circle. Everyone from the village stoned her with those rocks. I think that the stones represent death because they are weapons that the villagers are using to kill someone.