The Lottery Case

uses symbolism to demonstrate to us the amazing tradition and violence of a small towns annual ritual. The story begins on June 27th a beautiful summer day in a small town. Shirley Jackson describes the day as very happy day with children out playing games and collecting stones for the days upcoming event. The towns people are slowly gathering in their annual meeting place with enthusiasm. The atmosphere is relaxed, but anxious, as mothers are still tending to their duties and husbands are still chit chatting with the other men around town. Through all the normalcy of the day, the black box is the central theme in the story. The black box symbolizes at first some sort of secrecy that draws everyone towards it. When we get to the end of the story the realization of the black is that it spells the end of a life. To keep order in this small town, the black box and just one enclosed slip will determine who will not be here this time next year.

The black box is old and fractured, barely holding on to its once pristine condition. Even in its current condition the black box which has handed down the fate of so many before, will do the same today. Even though no one seems to know or better yet remember how this little black box got its start in this town, no questions it either. Although it will play just an important role in their lives. The lottery itself is symbolic of the contradiction in terms of the human being consciousness between sympathy in one aspect and the irony of a violent, merciless and unsympathetic death of a human being. Case in point the children are running around playing, the women are still preparing dinner for nights meal, and in a instance they are gathering with their parents and other adults to stone a member of the community to death. The annual tradition to stone someone to death, so the community does not become over populated, is as irrational as it gets. The towns people seem to not think of another way to combat the inevitable growth of their small town. All human compassion and rationality has disappeared to the unthinkable and in their minds the necessary.

The irony of this story is how the lucky black slip holder Tessie acted before she was chosen. Tessie was preparing dinner, watching her children and carrying on a conversation with the other local women. But when her husband pulled their family name, her mood changed. This was no longer a social gathering for Tessie. This was the end of her happily ever after. When Tessie wins the lottery; she pleads for another chance for herself and her family. She demands a redo and screams for mercy. All of her pleas fall on deaf ears, even her children seem to show no mercy to their mother and her husband shows no mercy to his wife. Backed into a corner in the middle of her cirlce of family, friends and community members the stones are placed in their hands. The stones will end

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