Fear In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”
Most people would like to win the lottery because it has to deal with winning money. In this story the lottery deals with death. The lottery in real life is about winning “big bucks” and becoming a millionaire. In this story, Shirley Jackson uses the lottery to symbolize death for the townspeople. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses the black box, the stones, and the black-dotted piece of paper to symbolize the fear of the townspeople.
In transition, Jackson uses the black box to describe the tradition to the townspeople. The black box had been a tradition to the town for awhile and it will not be changed until something happens to it. “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” (1 Jackson). This is basically describing the darkness of the black box and how it can represent fear to the townspeople. The splintering and the loss of color to the black box is providing fear and a darkness.“The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer …show more content…
While some might argue that the items represent a tradition, the text actually says that the people were panicking throughout the whole story not wanting to win the lottery when they were picking the paper. Fear was then turned into astonishment because of when Tessie Hutchinson won “The Lottery.” In her short story, Shirley Jackson uses a black box, some stones, and a black-dotted piece of paper to symbolize a sense of fear to innocent townspeople. Just like in real life anything that is dark can scare people for future events. Jackson leaves readers thinking, why would the author make the lottery a bad thing when a lottery should be good? What do the items that the author picked have to do with death? Readers can see fear is negative and positive but was fear really necessary in this short
Most people would like to win the lottery because it has to deal with winning money. In this story the lottery deals with death. The lottery in real life is about winning “big bucks” and becoming a millionaire. In this story, Shirley Jackson uses the lottery to symbolize death for the townspeople. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses the black box, the stones, and the black-dotted piece of paper to symbolize the fear of the townspeople.
In transition, Jackson uses the black box to describe the tradition to the townspeople. The black box had been a tradition to the town for awhile and it will not be changed until something happens to it. “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” (1 Jackson). This is basically describing the darkness of the black box and how it can represent fear to the townspeople. The splintering and the loss of color to the black box is providing fear and a darkness.“The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer …show more content…
While some might argue that the items represent a tradition, the text actually says that the people were panicking throughout the whole story not wanting to win the lottery when they were picking the paper. Fear was then turned into astonishment because of when Tessie Hutchinson won “The Lottery.” In her short story, Shirley Jackson uses a black box, some stones, and a black-dotted piece of paper to symbolize a sense of fear to innocent townspeople. Just like in real life anything that is dark can scare people for future events. Jackson leaves readers thinking, why would the author make the lottery a bad thing when a lottery should be good? What do the items that the author picked have to do with death? Readers can see fear is negative and positive but was fear really necessary in this short