The Lottery Meaning

When reading either a short story or a poem, it is important to take everything with a grain of salt and to look past what the words are saying. In the story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson all that occurs is not as seems. What appears to be an old town tradition turns out to be a public killing in the center of the town. Several elements of the story, whether it is something large or small, go beyond the literal sense and take on a more significant and symbolic meaning. The black box, the white pieces of paper within the box, and the entire lottery event in general are all symbols in the story because they contribute to the development of the true meaning behind what “The Lottery” is all about. Shirley Jackson took two simple items and a concept and created them in a way that made them significant to the overall meaning and messages within the story, which highlights the dangers of following a tradition blindly. The first significant element within “The Lottery” is the black box. This box is used during the actual event. It is placed

The box shows how the tradition is fading, the paper makes the readers think about the unavoidability of death, and the lottery bring to the light the dangers of blindly following tradition. “The Lottery” is a story about a little town that is suffering under the hand of a long-lived tradition. At first read, some may think that the “tradition” is all the story is. However when examining it more closely, there is so must more to it. Jackson wrote the story not to create a piece of work that makes the readers cringe, but to express the dark side of human nature. It is a story to spark thought and discussion about the dangers of following blindly and other life messages, which Jackson achieved through creating simple, yet significant, elements and integrating them within “The