In fact, the black box works as a figure item that these villagers are strongly faithful towards to the point that if there were any changes made to it, they would quickly act for it to remain the same.įor example, when the character Mr. In other, the black box shows a symbolism of tradition amongst the villagers on how it’s been made from previous pieces from older boxes and how it’s been worshipped for each generation. Throughout the story, the narrator clarifies that ‘the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it’ () which illustrates how old this Lottery heritage has been going on.

For example, take the references towards the black box throughout the story from its detailed shape and color as well as what it represents for the people in this dystopian society. () Therefore, in The Lottery, Jackson repeatedly uses the theme of religion, to help illustrate this type of oppressive societal control. In dystopian literature, philosophical and religious control is known as ‘a type of society that is controlled through a philosophical or religious ideology often enforce through a theocratic government’. Moreover, she uses strong imagery, theme, details, and characters to portray more on this type of dystopia. With the annual tradition and mandatory participation, Jackson portrays this story as a type of dystopia that uses philosophical and religious control to maintain order. In fact, the villager who wins the lottery will be compensated with their death instead and what makes the position even detrimental is that for those who weren’t selected must stone to death the annual winner. Reading this the first time several would consider that by winning the lottery a glorious reward would come as a result from it, however in this village that doesn’t appear to be the case. Moreover, the drawing is random for the event and everyone’s attendance is mandatory. On what transpires during this tradition is that it involves drawing papers for every family member in their household to settle on who wins the lottery each year.

In the events focused on a village that conducts what several would consider a dehumanizing and cruel annual tradition amongst each other.

The lottery short story