The black box which is the appliance to put the lottery tickets in was old and dilapidated. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.” They are not think the ceremony will really help with their crops, the only importance with this ceremony are hurt and kill the people in their village. I felt pity for these people. They are so savage, wild, woolly and uncivilized. They never try to stop the killing and hurting even they know that may have themselves killed on the sacrifice.
Where he stood a little apart from his family. Not looking down at his hand. The color black can represent sadness, mourning, and fear. Every time the box is mentioned before they find out which family has to choose a slip of paper, the box is always preceded with the word black, showing the readers that this box isn’t taken lightly by the villagers, and is a symbol of the death that could so easily be theirs. Word choice [Mr. Summers and Mr. Adams] grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously.
“Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. ‘It isn’t fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.” The atmosphere that Shirley Jackson describes in the beginning of the story is practically opposite to that at the end of the story. Originally, the village appears to be full of cheerfulness and a sense of community is present. In the end, the reader finds that there is a lack of loyalty amongst the people as Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death- with her own children as participants in the murder- and the village is no longer seen as a delightful place but is visualized as evil and vindictive.
The towns people live their lives believing that the day of the lottery is a normal day and that sacrificing one of their will help them have a good crop season; and rebellion in the way that Tessie stood up for herself in front of the whole town to try to stay alive but did not succeed. Tessie might have always felt that the lottery was not something that should have been done, but did not go against it until she was the
The people like having something that reoccurs without question, they are used to it and are not willing to change things right away. “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box they still remembered to use stones.” (pg 220). The children in the story are the ones to gather the stones that would be used to stone the lottery winner, and the adults or people don’t think anything is wrong with making the children participate in this because it is normal to them. Nobody thinks anything is wrong with stoning people because it was engraved in their heads that this was how they did things and they didn’t question
"Conflict and Controversy in the Lottery" Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery" as a very intriguing yet horrifying short story. This story is very well known due to the village’s annual tradition. The title makes the story come off as it will be a fortunate event because "lottery" usually comes across as "money". Unfortunately, in this story, the title doesn't mean what it typically does. There isn't any money involved.
Now whoever has drew the paper with the dot on it is the one who gets stoned to death by the townspeople. What makes this so disturbing is even the other family members take stones and throw them at their loved one. It makes it seem that this is an okay thing to do. They support and contribute to a murder. Fast-forward to the times of today and murders feel it is okay to kill and could it be from reading this story?
If a situation came upon the villagers where they would have been held to ask why they participate in point blank, they would generally have to come across the reason of why they have committed murder. The fact that all villagers carry that burden within themselves, ritual is the only vital explanation they have and need. Similarly, allegories play a significant role in this narrative. The rocks, which make their appearance in the first section of the lottery, signify that something larger will occur during the course of the narrative. Hence, why smaller children carry small stones and adults carry larger stones near the end.
The lottery is a reaper of some sort that every year, claims the life of an innocent soul. Jackson confuses the reader with her lively tone, but reels them back in with the small, but meaningful gestures and comments from the town’s people. The villagers accept this form of death because it is the only thing that they know. The tradition of the lottery has been drilled down for so long that Old Man Warner, the oldest of the town, doesn’t know any better. Another form of symbolism is the black box that sits upon the three-legged stool.
Everything has change for Tessie and her family but nothing has changed for the rest of the community. The villagers crowd around her in a circle getting ready to throw stones at her. At the same time, Jackson also reveals the deceased society as they move "onto Tessie" to kill her (Jackson 256). The people do not realize the cruelty they are showing and they do not seem to understand that somebody else will have to go through the same thing next year. As each person gets a stone, they do not understand that the stones will hit them some day as well.