The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story about a a group of people who blindly follow a tradition of stoning the lucky person who “wins the lottery”. The story introduces many themes and portrays many symbols, emphasizing that blindly following something, specifically a tradition or belief, shouldn’t happen merely because it is a tradition. The Lottery itself is a symbol of an action, behavior, or idea that is passed down and accepted and followed unquestioningly, no matter how illogical, bizarre, or cruel. The lottery has been taking place in the village for as long as anyone can remember. It is a tradition that no one has thought to question. Nevertheless, the lottery continues, simply because there has always been a lottery. The result of this tradition is that everyone becomes party to murder on an annual basis. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generations. The shabby black box represents both the tradition of the lottery and the illogic of the villagers’ loyalty to it. The black box is nearly falling apart, but the villagers are unwilling to replace it. They base their attachment on nothing more than a story that claims that this black box was made from pieces of another, older black box. There is really no reason why the villagers should be loyal to the black box yet disloyal to other relics and traditions, just as there is no logical reason why the villagers should continue holding the lottery at all.
