Shirley Jackson's the Lottery the Term Paper

The symbol in the story is the black box from which the villagers draw every year. The fact that the box grows shabbier and shabbier without being changed is an evidence of how the people generally cling to traditions and refuse to let go: "Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color..."(Jackson, 115) the black box is thus a symbol for how certain ideas and conceptions are stored up by people who deny change and novelty.

There are obviously many situations in real life in which Jackson's allegory applies. Clinging to tradition, people refuse to accept new realities about the world they live in. This can often lead to serious problems such as racism, exclusion of other people, rejection and many other social conflicts. Even if a certain tradition is not as violent as that in Jackson's story it can still be harmful because it prevents evolution and the development of a superior understanding. Traditions should not be used thus as the bases for establishing the identity of a particular community. The use of a lottery as the main element in the allegory is also very telling: tradition proves to be something irrational and random.

The Lottery thus evidences that tradition should be remembered as a way to understand the past but not as a way to live the present or to plan the future. Clinging to a certain practice or to a certain idea can be harmful for the sanity of a community. Jackson's story is thus a critique of tradition and how it can mar the development of a human society to a higher understanding of itself and of the world surrounding it.

Works Cited

Jackson, Shirley, the Lottery in X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama (10th edition). New York: Longman, 2006.