All traditions do is brainwash our youth. That’s a hyperbole so let’s say this instead. Traditions are sacred things that should be passed down from generation to generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question them. Jackson uses symbolism, of the black box, characters’ names, and the title of the story itself to develop the theme of everyday violence and ignorance of tradition.
One way Jackson uses symbolism is through the mystery of the black box because of its color and age. The black box was not just a regular box it was beaten up with all kinds of wood splitting from the box and the color “was no longer completely black, but splintered badly on one side” (Jackson 391). This just doesn't represent a drawing box, it was religious …show more content…
For example, Old man warner is just as his name implies: the oldest man in the story; he has survived 77 lotteries (395). His name goes beyond the literal when we look at the denotation of his last name Warner, one who warns. His role in the story is to actually warn of the dangers of straying from the tradition of the lottery. Jackson doesn’t just stick with the obvious names. She uses christianity as symbolism for her names. One of the families in the lottery is the Adams family who is the first to pick the white slip and the first to openly complain about the lottery itself. This name is the first man in the Bible and he was “kicked out” of the Garden of Eden. Jackson’s use may indicate that there are dangers in straying from tradition of the lottery. The strongest example is the Delacroix name, which is French for “of the cross.” (Shmoop Editorial Team). The reader infers that this is an allusion to Jesus and his willing sacrifice on the cross. Jackson writes that “the villagers pronounced this name ‘Dellacroy’ (390) and an alert reader wonders why. Later in the story when Tessie is stoned to death, the deeper meanings come forth: the lottery is a perversion of what Jesus did on the cross; this town is twisted just like their pronunciation of the Delacroix name (Shmoop Editorial