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Michael Hals
Mrs. Carter
AP LIT
14 October 2014
Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy for The Lottery
Of all of the spine tingling short stories, The Lottery by Shirley
Jackson is one of the most memorable. Its seemingly casual but truly
horrifying tone succeeds to nail down the authors message about tradition,
and how blind faith in it can lead to disastrous consequences. Jackson uses
many literary devices in her story, but none as important as her use of
symbols, allegorical plot structure, and a not so farfetched fantasy.
Authors often use symbols to help convey the underlying message of
their story, and The Lottery is no different. Jackson portrays her ideas
about tradition with the black box that the ballots are held in. She describes
it as being made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, (pg. 1,
paragraph 5) and that the box has grown shabbier each year: by now it was
no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the
original wood color, (pg. 2, paragraph 1.) Aside from being black, a color
associated with death and misery, the box symbolizes tradition and the
process with which it deteriorates after time. Traditions, like the box, are
fashioned from fractions of beliefs that came before them, continuously
building upon each other to become what they are today. And as they build,
they progressively decay, like the boxs peeling surface, morphing into
something far worse than what was started out with.
Along with using symbols, The Lottery is also an allegory, making use
of the characters and plot points to get the message across. Of the
characters in the book, the two main stereotypes are made from Tessie and
Old Man Warner. Tessie stands for change and new ideals, who constantly
questions the established status quo, repeatedly stating, It isnt fair, it isnt
right! (pg. 7, paragraph 8.) On the other end of the spectrum, Warner
stands for the root traditions we hold so dear, and the people who ignorantly
cling to the familiar, as shown when he says, Next thing you know, theyll
be wanting to go back to living in caves, and Theres always been a
lottery, (pg. 4, paragraph 9.) In the end, Jackson shows how these new
ideals are eventually crushed by the overwhelming majority, just as simply
and swiftly as crushing a person beneath stone.
Finally, Jackson employs an interesting and effective form of fantasy.
Instead of creating a fantastical world to get her point across, she does the

Hals 2

exact opposite, and writes about an everyday village run by everyday

people. Jackson includes many casual bits of dialogue between villagers,
Clean forgot what day it wasThought my old man was out back stacking
wood. (pg. 2, paragraph 4.) She also portrays the casual familiarity of
everyone within the village, making sure that even the most trivial of
characters get a first and last name, as well as even sounding out a hard to
pronounce surname, Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix the
villagers pronounced this name Dellacroy By making everything so
familiar, Jackson produces a contrast to fantasy, making this tale relatable to
its audience, and allowing the theme to hit home even harder.