Religious Symbolism In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

The Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson, tells the story of a small, tight-knit community of about three hundred people who are gathering for their yearly ceremonial event referred to as the lottery, which every townsperson is required to attend and participate in. During this ceremony, one person stands before all the others, calling off the names of the townspeople who are representative of their households to come and draw slips of paper from an old black box passed down from the previous generations that had participated in the lottery. The black box is rumored to be held together by bits and pieces of all the other long-lost boxes that had come before it, and throughout the lottery it sits firmly upon a three-legged stool in the center of the stage. When the last slip is drawn, those who posses them open them up, with one man revealing a slip with a black spot, while all the other slips were blank. The unlucky “winner” of this lottery then had his family called up to the stage, where his wife and three children were also

Though this short story is packed with many different symbolic elements and references, the three most prominent symbols in The Lottery are the black box, the three-legged stool, and the stones. All three of these symbols are key elements in both the successful completion of the lottery in the story and in the overall theme of the story. In addition, all three of these symbols also have meaning rooted in religion. To assess the overall theme of this story, it is important to first examine its main elements individually in order to get a clearer picture of their meaning as a