The Lottery

Having to see a man present to you a piece of paper containing a dot inside, you don’t know what to think at this time. You are with all of your neighbors crowded together in your subdivision for a contest that is about to happen. But then all of a sudden everyone starts to throw rocks at you, and you feel the dash of pain run down your body. It then stops, because you have died from all of this disastrous pain. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the traditions that are celebrated in this town.

In this story one of the main character is Mr. Summers. He is the man who makes everything worse, and cause all of the deaths in the town. He is the one in the story with the evil spirit, because of what he does. He should be named that, because he gives innocent people the black dot which kills them. The author put this character in the story, because she wanted to show you that one person could affect everything that happens around them.

Shirley Jackson also does a excellent job of describing the symbols in this story. She uses symbols like the black box and black dot. These symbols would be known as tradgedy, because black usually means tragedy. When Shirley starts off the story,she uses symbols like clear-sunny day, and fresh green grass. It makes you feel like to story is going to great, but in the ends tragically when Mr. Summers opens the black box. This refers back to the sentence that talks about the tragedy that is going to happen. You think a lottery is about winning money, but not in this lottery. If you get a black dot you die.

In this story the author referred back to the symbols and the main character, Mr. Summers. She did this because she wanted you to think at the beginning that everything was going to go well, but then she adds in Mr. Summers who just makes the story worse. Shirley Jackson demonstrates how traditions can change when one person controls what happens in the town.