Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The symbolism found behind the method of execution within the short story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery,” is what I found most compelling. Towards the end of the story when it stated “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” This tells the readers that Jackson was trying to get the point across that, indeed the villagers had no idea what the purpose of the lottery was, individuals participated for the sole reason of violence. In order to create such violence, the villagers chose to stone the individual with the black dot on their piece of paper. This particular method of execution was prevalent in the past, due to the fact that several individuals participated