Shirley Jackson: Using Color To Symbolize Cruelty and Evil in Everyday Life

Shirley Jackson

What is humanity's true nature? Are people basically good, or basically evil? Over the centuries, many people have tried to find the answer to this question, to no avail. Author Shirley Jackson takes a definite stance on the issue throughout her work, arguing that people are basically evil. Many times, this theme is obviously stated in her stories, but sometimes it is woven in more subtly. In her short stories "The Lottery,” "Elizabeth," and "Flower Garden," Shirley Jackson uses color to symbolize the cruelty and evil common in everyday life.

In “The Lottery,” Jackson tells the story of what appears to be an innocent festival in a small, rural town in the United States. All of the townspeople gather around a black box, and cheerfully take turns drawing slips of paper from it until one gets a paper with a black mark. However, it is at this point that the story takes a gruesome turn and its true theme is revealed: the person who ends up with a mark on their paper is stoned to death, in the belief that it will bring the town a better harvest. The theme of cruelty showing up in everyday life is clear in this story, since the town first appears to be an average place with average people, but quickly becomes something horrific and appalling. As Helen Nebeker points out in her article “’The Lottery’: Symbolic Tour de Force,” Jackson attempts to show that not only is man’s basic nature cruel, this cruelty has become so rooted in traditions and everyday events that it is unlikely to ever be changed (302). This view is demonstrated throughout the story in symbolic terms, especially through the use of color.

The most obvious way in which color is used symbolically is on the box and the marked slip of pa...

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...nd the nicest woman in town, does not fit in with the severe, cruel women who dress all in white and shades of gray. Points like this are made throughout the story, clearly demonstrating Jackson’s use of color to symbolize humanity’s cruel nature.

As in this example in “Flower Garden,” Shirley Jackson uses color throughout “The Lottery,” “Elizabeth,” and “Flower Garden” to symbolize a persistent theme of underlying cruelty in everyday life. Although she achieves it sometimes through a shocking twist as in “The Lottery” and sometimes through subtle characterization as in “Elizabeth,” human malevolence is common in Jackson’s works. It is difficult to imagine a writer with a greater focus on the subject. Jackson has taken a clear position regarding the question of the humanity’s true nature. It is up to the reader to decide whether to follow her views or reject them.