Archetypes In The Lottery

All human beings have inherent and universal patterns of behaviour which are depicted through myths and literature; these are called archetypes. In “The Lottery”, the author Shirley Jackson uses effective archetypal symbolism. The symbols portray that dark elements in the cultural traditions creates persecution. The symbolism of the archetypes seen in the characters, the tradition, and the objects use are all features of a cultural tradition that promotes persecution in the society. The characters in “The Lottery” are a representations of different archetypes that affects an individual in a society. For example, Mr. Summers is the archetypal Ruler because people listens to him and he is the person in charge of town events such as; “ square …show more content…
The stones represents hostility and death. In the story, Mrs. Hutchinson who is the sacrificial lamb is stoned to death by her fellow villagers. It also represents inhumanity and deception. Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs Dunbar, the friends of Mrs. Hutchinson, went with the crowd and collected stones to throw at their friend. Another example is the black box, it represents the undying tradition of the lottery. “The present black box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it…” and that it has been there “even before Old Man Warner” (1). It is an object used to perpetuate tradition. In reality, people use objects like the stones in traditional punishments. Symbols in such stories represents dark elements from cultural traditions. In “The Lottery”, the characters, the lottery tradition, and the material objects are example of those elements. For instance, there are people in the world that commits inhumanity out of passed on knowledge. There are also traditions that teaches the wrong concept. To this day, persecution is still present due to the teachings of the older generations. This would be an ongoing issue; someone would always be discriminated because of