Throughout the story of The Lottery, symbolisms are apparent. Shirley Jackson sets the scene of the story as bright and magnificently beautiful in the beginning, but as the story continues that scene is destroyed and replaced by what some would consider quite disturbing. The Lottery takes the road less traveled in route to its disturbing nature. Symbolisms provided by Shirley Jackson provide her audience with the knowledge to make sense of the ironic chaos abound. Three symbolisms stand prevalent above all other in, The Lottery; the three-legged stool, the black box, and the lottery itself.
The three-legged stool that is mentioned in Shirley’s story happens to display important symbolism for her story. The three legs of the stool seemingly represent the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirt). As a representation of life, forgiveness, and hope the stool (Holy Trinity) is used to support the black box when a random drawing was in process. The Stool’s employment of supporting the black box in The Lottery represents the manipulative involvement of people in religion to support collective violence. There also lies irony in the symbolism. It is ironic that the stool represents the Holy Trinity and yet it supports the black box which symbolizes death, evil, fear, and mystery. The placement of the stool as the centerpiece of the square room highlights the mystery of the box and also the symbolism of the three-legged stool.
The black box that sets atop the three-legged stool has two major symbolic qualities being its shape (box) and its color (black). Black, the color of the box represents death, evil, fear, and mystery. The random drawing from the black box constructs fear and mystery in the people anticipating the drawing. Evil soon ensues to turn people who once had high morals into bigots. And the random drawing selection process is capped off by death whom presents itself through a thorough stoning of the “lu...