Essay On Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Symbolism in Stories The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson contains many symbols, such as the three-legged stool, the white piece of paper, and the setting, all of which symbolize some positive aspects of life. For example, the three-legged stool symbolizes the Christian Trinity (the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit). The white piece of paper symbolizes another year of life and the sunny summer setting symbolizes life. However, not all symbols are positive. Unlike the three symbols that were previously mentioned, the black box symbolizes some negative aspects of life, such as apathy, the possibility of death, and bad traditions. One of the meanings of the black box is apathy. Most of the villagers do not express sympathy for Tessie when she draws the paper with the black dot on it, which came from inside the black box. Also, stoning Tessie to death is a result of Tessie picking a piece of paper out of the black box. Therefore, when the villagers stone Tessie to death, it shows that they are apathetic towards people because even though Tessie did not commit a crime or do anything that made her …show more content…
Apathy is shown through the use of the black box because many of the villagers could care less that they murder people who do not commit any crimes. Even the children of the village do not care that they murder people who do not deserve to be killed because that is how they are raised. The possibility of death is symbolized by the black box because the black box contains many plain white pieces of paper and one white piece of paper with a black dot on it. This means that one person will be killed, but everybody has the possibility to killed. Finally, the black box symbolizes the lottery tradition of the villagers. Although “tradition” normally possesses a positive connotation, in this story, the lottery tradition is
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