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September 23rd, 2014 The symbol that is the strongest in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is the black box. This box represents the town’s tradition to the lottery even though they try to make it seem like it doesn’t really make sense to keep the tradition. This black box is not even the original black box that was used before, but rather made of pieces of the original box that had aged before it. The story says that “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.”. However the town was unwilling to change the box due to some strange devotion to the tradition of the lottery even though they realize it’s not even the original box they still say things like “but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” and “Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.”. This black box was used by everyone in the town even the oldest man Mr. Warner which is another reason why they are so attached to it. The black box shows how much tradition means to this town because they are unwilling to even change the box even though they say some towns have even got rid of the lottery all together. Even though some things such as using paper instead of wood chips have changed they still maintain some kind of loyalty to the black box. The black box shows the ignorance of the town who are unwilling to give up old ways even though some have given up old traditions completely.
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