The Black Box - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The symbols she uses indirectly communicate the major theme of the work, in addition to the seemingly innocuous dialogue of the seemingly innocuous lottery happening in the town.
One of the more potent symbols Jackson uses throughout her story is the black box, and, more generally, just the color black. Black, as it is traditionally interpreted, stands for death, decay, ignorance, and decline. The black box, of course, holds the lottery slips. While a similar ballot box would receive slips from voters in an election, this box only gives out slips, showing the lack of individual choice and freedom in this ritual. The blackness of the box gives off an ominous foreshadowing of events, and is itself a symbolic description of how the townspeople have sacrifice their individual wills to the social decree., as Jackson writes, “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”. The keen reader recognizes that the box’s decay indicates not only the physical corrosion of the box but of the social and moral corrosion of what it represents: the lottery.
As the process accelerates during the course of “The Lottery”, Jackson writes that the townspeople stay as far away from the box as possible. Once again, this description is clearly relating to physical distance; but it may also refer to the concept of responsibility, and the moral qualms people have about participating in the lottery. The townspeople avoid the black box as if it were some kind of evil spirit, and because of this endow the box with such great power. Jackson writes, “The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool…” What otherwise would be just some old dilapidated box is, as a result of the social order and status quo, is an ...Download file to see next pagesRead More