Themes, Symbols,
Foreshadowing and Irony

Theme 1 :.The reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, ideas, rules, laws, and practices.
• The villagers continue the lottery year after year because, as one of the villagers would say, “We have always had a lottery as far back as I can remember. I see no reason to end it.” Put another way, this theme says: “We’ve always done it this way. Why change now?” In real life, defenders of the status quo have used this philosophy down through the ages and into the present day. For example, it was used in 1776 to retain slavery even though the Declaration of Independence asserted that “all men are created equal.”
Until 1919, it was used to prevent women from voting. Until the 1960's, it was used as an official public policy to allow racial segregation. This philosophy continues to be used today to retain outmoded practices, discriminatory practices, and sometimes dangerous practices. These practices include the use of paper ballots in elections, the use of nuclear weapons, capital punishment, abortion, anti-
Semitism, racial profiling, and denial of health benefits to the poor.

Theme 2 :.Society wrongfully designates scapegoats to bear the sins of the community.
• According to some interpretations of “The Lottery,”
Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death to appease forces desiring a sacrificial lamb offered in atonement for the sins of others. The practice of using scapegoats dates back to ancient times, when Jews ritually burdened a goat with the sins of the people, then threw it over a cliff to rid the community of those sins. Ancient Greeks performed a similar ritual with a human scapegoat, although the scapegoat apparently did not die. In ancient
Rome, an innocent person could take on the sin of a guilty person, thus purifying the latter. Early societies in
Central and South America offered human sacrifices to appease higher powers.

Theme 3 : Following the crowd can have disastrous consequences.
• Although some townspeople raise questions about the lottery, they all go along with it in the end. Thus, they become unthinking members of a herd, forfeiting their individuality and sending
Tessie Hutchinson to her death.

• (1) Barbaric tradition or practice. In this category in former times were slavery and human sacrifice practiced by the ancient Maya civilization that inhabitated modernday Mexico and other Central American countries. In modern times, abortion, capital punisment, sadomasochism, cage-fighting, and dog-fighting are in this category. (2) Any foolhardy tradition that a community refuses to give up, such as the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. (3) Real-life lotteries and other forms of gambling that devastate human beings. (4) The risks of daily living, such as driving a car or flying on an airplane,

• (1) Evil or death, suggested by the color of the box. (2) Outdated tradition, suggested by this sentence: "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."

• Indoctrination or brainwashing that is passed on from one generation to the next.

• .......Shirley Jackson foreshadows the ending when the children gather stones (second paragraph):
• Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie
Delacroix . . . eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.

• The word lottery suggests that the villagers are going to draw for a prize.
• The sunny day suggests that a happy event is about to take place.
• When Old Man Warner hears that the north village is considering ending the lottery, he says,
"Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves." (The lottery is as savage and barbaric a ritual as any practiced by cave dwellers.)