Did you know that symbolism is very important in short literature? Since the beginning of short story writing in the New England Renaissance, many works of short literature have emerged as symbols for our society. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, published on June 26th, 1948, continues to stand as a symbol today because the characters and events alike resemble themes that still reflect on our modern culture. In the story, townspeople like Old Man Warner and the Hutchinsons attend a gruesome public event as they did year after year. However, “The Lottery” wasn’t a peculiar story just because of the ending. “The Lottery” is a parable: meaning that its themes demonstrate a lesson for the reader to take into consideration in their lives. Jackson decided to demonstrate the story’s themes in a variety of ways.

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The first way themes are carried to the reader are through the characters themselves. Old Man Warner’s character is a theme itself, because he is a man who insults the ideals of the young. The younger generation wants to do away with the old drawing box or remove the lottery entirely, which prompts Mr. Warner to make an appalling statement about the young: "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while (“The Lottery”)” The symbolism in his statement is his delusionment that young ideas for change are bad. Old folks in the modern day believe the same exact way about their youth when referring to the rise of technology or democratic ideology. Old Man Warner teaches the reader through his words and actions that in their old age, he or she should be more considerate to change and the ideas of the youth in their community.  Other characters that represent themes in the story are Davy Hutchinson, and Tessie. Both characters eminently represent the complicity to the lottery. Neither of them even question the legitimacy of the events taking place. Davy, despite the winner of the lottery being his mother, beats her to death with a few pebbles. The only time someone complained about the lottery was when Tessie thought she had won. “She starts to complain about the lottery only when she realizes that it is going to directly affect her own family (Du Bose).” She embodies selfishness and the desire for self preservation that most of humanity possesses. The themes behind these two characters express careless conformity to a specific, and sometimes bad, mindset. The author is expressing the reader to be the one who breaks the chain of conformity, to be the rebel who actually looks out for others rather than to obey the unwritten laws of a community that may continue to cause harm to others. Jackson likes to stress themes through her characters, but that isn’t her only method of expressing themes to the reader.

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Jackson also likes to expose lessons to the reader through the plot and the setting of the story. The story takes place in a New England village, with a population of three hundred people. This fact is very important because it is usually small villages and towns that continue to hold older traditions, and are the last places to receive cultural change. The same pattern lies true with “The Lottery” because Mrs Adams said that “some places have already quit lotteries(“The Lottery”).” People behaved just like these characters when fidget spinners became popular. They were invented, then advertised and distributed everywhere. Shops in smaller towns were among the last to receive the new product, therefore the new product had become dull and new products had already replaced the fidget spinner in population centers. The village in “The Lottery” isn’t just special because of its size, but its location is also a key symbol due to its location in the colonial east. In colonial times, certain villages engaged in cultist rituals. “The Lottery,” which had a dark ending, may have been the ritual of that village. In history, one of the most famous cult activities in that region were the Salem Witch Trials. In a way, “The Lottery” resembles those trials because innocent people are being put to death by the selfish desire of the population. “The people of the town are caught up in the ritual to such an extent that they have given up any sense of logic. Mob psychology rules their actions (Mazzeno).” Just like in the Salem Witch Trials, family could be turned against family just as Davy Hutchinson killed his mother in the story. One recognisable theme originating from the event itself is the fact that Shirley targets the instinctive use of scapegoats during the years of the Cold War (Nelles). Through location and the event itself, the author continues to demonstrate important themes to the reader. Through her literary work, “The Lottery” continues to serve its purpose by contributing to students worldwide.

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The modern generation continues to read “The Lottery” and be influenced by Jackson’s work. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is a novel and television series that takes place in a dystopian future. In the story, a majority of the human population is enslaved to work for a dictatorship that abuses and mistreats them. In both The Hunger Games and “The Lottery,” Mr Summers and President Snow are leaders that tend to have a lot of time on their hands and spend most of their time working for personal goals rather than for the needs of the population they are supposed to serve. Ironically, the fictional nation of Panem produces an annual event that resembles “The Lottery” in almost identical ways. As punishment for defying the Capitol, each district must gather every child within their borders and gather them in one single area for a drawing. If their name was drawn, it meant that the chosen one would be sent to the Hunger Games where all contestants from each district fight to the death until a sole victor would remain. This event reflects Jackson’s work in the fact that there was a simple random sampling method used to bring about the death of the winner or chosen one. Another similarity that sticks out like a sore thumb is the leader of the Capitol, President Snow. President Snow resembles Old Man Warner in Shirley Jackson’s work. Like Warner, Snow is obsessed with Hunger Games and will do everything in his power to prevent change. Just like Warner, he wanted to delegitimize the opposition by labeling them as something bad or unfathomable. Warner convinced the village that the youth in the village were a “pack of crazy fools” who wanted to destroy an age-old tradition (“The Lottery”). He successfully appealed to his fellow neighbors and townsfolk, through the tradition itself, that the lottery is what separated them from the idea of a primitive society. Snow did the same thing to the rebels, and explicitly targeted Katniss since she was the symbol of rebellion. She became a scapegoat in Snow’s mind, and was blamed for the events that would eventually unfold. Instead of recognising Katniss and her fellow tributes as “rebels,” he decided to label them as “radicals” when referring to their actions in the Quarter Quell. Snow wanted the public to feel disgusted and outraged from their “radical” actions, and did not want to portray their group as a legitimate force against him. One last direct theme that The Hunger Games conveys is the theme of selfish interest. The most obvious example is Snow and his need to demonstrate his power, but the people of the districts are also subject to selfishness. For the 76 years of the hunger games’ existence, the people of the districts submitted to the terms of the Treaty of Treason. Over time, the Capitol turned this gravely grim event into a television sport where the citizens of Panem could watch and cheer for their favorite district’s victor to win. Even the people of the districts treated the hunger games like a sport, so much so that districts 1 and 2 trained for them. Overall, this demonstrates how the districts and the capitol only fend for themselves. The townspeople in “The Lottery” behaved the same way, and only reacted to the horrible events when they found themselves at risk. Overall, in both “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games, the people find themselves complicit with tradition.

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In conclusion, Shirley Jackson’s has and continues to touch readers through its underlying themes. Her themes are conveyed through the setting, situation, and characters that represent real attitudes, places, and behaviors. Modern works, like The Hunger Games, expand on her work and display her themes on an escalated, national level. Overall, people were selfish creatures that only cried out when they were the ones explicitly targeted by these horrific events. Now having read this essay, would you agree or disagree with that statement?

 

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Works Cited

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Du Bose, Thomas. “The Lottery.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition, Nov. 2010, pp. 1–3. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331MP421429820000662&site=lrc-live.

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Mazzeno, Laurence W. “The Lottery.” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition, Jan. 2004, pp. 1–2. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331MSS17759240001138&site=lrc-live.

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Nelles, William. “The Lottery.” Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series, Mar. 1995, pp. 1–3. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331WOM12839610000283&site=lrc-live.

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“The Lottery.” The Lottery and Other Stories. New York: Farrar, 1991. 291-302.