Shirley Jackson's use of symbolism in "The Lottery" clarifies the blatant foolishness and immorality of using a scapegoat. The deteriorating significance of the town's traditional Lottery custom sparks insight into examining the profound reasons behind having a scapegoat at all. Visual and tactile forms of symbolism create a heightened awareness for an in depth examination into the meaning of the word, scapegoat; the direct affect symbolism places on the issue at hand, relates directly to the issues affect on the scapegoat.

At some point, the evolution of society enforces an analysis of what customs are right and what customs are wrong, what practices are outdated and what actions are immoral. The town members have many varying outlooks on the continuance of the Lottery practice. For Old Man Warner, the Lottery has many values. He feels that it's a tr

A scapegoat, by definition, innocently bears the blame or sins of an entire group. Tessie Hutchinson was an outspoken, hard workingwoman with a good personality. By the luck of the draw, she bears the sins of the entire town. To preserve the crops, to ensure town prosperity, for whatever reason, an innocent mother of three is stoned by her fellow townspeople by the luck of the Lottery. The dying town tradition, a mere habit rather than a needed function, maliciously condemned an innocent woman and sentenced her to an immoral death.

Symbolism helps clarify the town's moral opinion of the Lottery. The black box, and the character's ignorance all contained attributes of symbolism. Black, signifying death, is applied in many areas. Aside from the black box, black is profoundly expressed in this sentence, "It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal-company office.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Adams Adams, Shirley Jackson's, Tessie Hutchinson, Warner Lottery, It's People, black spot, symbolism helps, sins entire, heavy pencil, lottery custom, black box,
Approximate Word count = 635
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)