Theme of "The Lottery"
...about how the lottery should be abolished, but that the way she was chosen wasn’t fair. This irony helps show that the idea of the lottery is such a widely accepted tradition that people who want to be rid of it is just a “Pack of crazy fools” (268). In addition, it is situational irony that the lottery is being held even though no one knows why. Old man Warner only knows that there was an old saying, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (268). The author’s use of symbolism in “The Lottery” helps illustrate the out-dated ideas of the villagers. The black box is a symbol not only of death, as the color of death is usually shown to be black, but a symbol of out-dated tradition. This ties in with the theme in that no one knows what the original box looked like, so they use the one that has been passed down from generation to generation. The stones that the children have gathered are supposed to be round and smooth, and they do not even know why. This shows the theme that the tradition is out-dated, and people are so reluctant to change the way things have been that no one knows why they do these things a certain way. It is also symbolic that the lottery is held in June, before the harvest. It is held in a time where a death like this may be considered sacrificial to the harvest. This shows that the idea of the lottery may be necessary to the survival of the villagers. The theme is prevalent in that if people grew up believing in some part of them that all would not be well if the lottery was taken out, then they would resist changing the tradition, no matter what people in other towns were doing. Setting is very important in showing the theme of “The Lottery”. The setting is in June, sometime in the 1940’s, at a time whe...