The Lottery-Black Box

508 Words3 Pages
The function of the black box in Shirley Jacksons “the lottery”

In ‘the lottery’ by Shirley Jackson, we are introduced to the lottery the villagers conduct, and the black box they use for it, we see the influence the box has on the villagers right away from the first moment that the box is being presented; a murmur is passing through the crowd, the villagers prefer to keep their distance from the box, and hesitate to help Mr. summers. We learn from that behaviour that the box is perceived as something one would stay away from; it symbolises danger and alerts the villagers. The box also represents the lottery, an occasion that gathers all villagers together, and no one can avoid. The black box takes a major part in the tradition of the lottery, and represents the tradition itself. Throughout the history of the village, there had always been a black box and a lottery: “…The black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born.” , it is also described as having parts from the box that preceded the current one. the box represents the idea that as long as there is a box, the tradition continues to carry on and there will be a lottery. If we look at the black box as a symbol, we can tell that it stands for a never changing tradition, as the lottery is a tradition that is to last, so be the box, we can see that in the refuse of the villagers to create a new one: “Mr. summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” Therefore the box stand for the tradition in the village, a kind of tradition that no one wants to upset. The description of the box implies of darkness, something evil, it is black and old, and is in use for so many years, the colour black represents death, evil, and
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