Symbolism in “The Lottery” by Shirley JacksonFor most of us, when you think of the word lottery, you think of wealth, of buying a new home, being debt free and being able to afford things you once dreamed of buying. Misled by the positive connotation that accompanies the word lottery, readers may be slightly confused by how the story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, unfolds. The sun shining with the flowers blooming can easily create an uplifting setting. Instead of using the lottery as a positive bet for monetary gain, the author uses different literary techniques to present the lottery as a life and death bet. Shirley uses symbolism to emphasize her theme about the dangers of blindly following tradition through the lottery itself, the black box. Sacrifice plays an important role in the acute community. It instills a form of obedience and loyalty towards the morbid tradition. Although tradition changes with time; for the villagers, all notion of sacrifice is never lost. Jackson, the author of The Lottery, uses sacrifice to construct an extremely original plot. Jackson wrote the story as if it were a lucky lottery to eliminate readers' consistency and distort the plot. Throughout the story, the author leaves helpful clues to bring out the theme. For example when Jackson wrote? Bobby Martin had already filled his pockets with stones and the other boys began to follow his example, and "ended up forming a large pile of stones in the corner of the square." This sign of foreshadowing shows what method of sacrifice is to be used in the short story. The city had no choice but to hold the lottery. In The Lottery, old man Warner said? Listen to these young people, nothing is good enough for them. Next time they want to go back to living in caves, no one works anymore, live like that for a while. This cites the intention