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To be the winner of a lottery to most means to be a millionaire. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” puts a whole new twist on winning a lottery. The Lottery is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The setting of the story takes place the 27th of June in a small village on a fresh, sunny morning. It would seem to be a normal day to most, but to one, it will be the last day they see. In the short story “The Lottery,” several objects are used to symbolize the lack of logic, or randomness, of the lottery itself.
The characters in “The Lottery” value the tradition so much, just as society today values traditions. Although, a lot of traditions stir up controversies. The black box is one of the oldest symbols of the lottery. It has overtime become old and roguish, just being of scraps. The box doesn’t hold much value. “The rest of the year the box was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves’ barn and another year underfoot in the post office, and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there” (213). The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box-had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born (134). Everyone in the village knows what the black box represents. Though they do not know why they participate in this tradition, they refuse to do away with the black box. The black box, something so small, holds something that means so much. While to others it is just something to pack up old things with, to this town it is what holds the fate of an unlucky villager. It is quite ironic that the box is black, as some may relate the color black to death.
Every villager of the town play...

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...wood that had been used for generations” (134). The villagers continue on with the ritual annually only because there has always been one.
The lottery can bring out a lot of mystery and emotion to one’s inner self. How could someone even write something so cruel? One possible reason Shirley Jackson could have wrote the lottery is because she did not like big crowds. As the lottery gets rid of a person per year, making what is a smaller crowd in the village. People sometimes think of change being a bad thing. The characters in "The Lottery" are a great example of this fear. They were born into something they knew nothing about. Growing up to believe stoning people to death was something the town needed. They do not realize what they are doing is quite harsh and redundant. In the end finding out that you are not really a winner and that it may be time for a change.

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