Write a paragraph answering each of the questions below.
Consider:
Graves
Summers
The shabbiness of the black box
The substitution of paper for wood chips
The change of the ritual chant and salute
The stoning finale
1. How do these symbols reflect the main theme of The Lottery?
2. How do these symbols build up to make The Lottery an allegory?
The Product of our class discussion:
Theme of The Lottery? Death, Sin, Chance/Fortune, Hope, Brutality, Evil, Complicity, Ritual, Tradition, Religion, Sacrifice…..
Symbol Reflection
Graves: Graves=a place to bury the dead, character an active participant in the death of others
Summers: Wheel of the year/follows the year, Irony (season of life but season of the lottery, gate keeper of death)
The shabbiness of the black box: black=dying, darkness, death, shabbiness=aging, people’s opinions
The substitution of paper for wood chips: paper=more civilization, moving further away from the source of the ritual
The change of the ritual chant and salute: Ambivalence re: killing, more direct, indicates of reason for ritual, loss of culture, shortens process
The stoning finale: Why? =brutal death, everyone an active murderer
What situations in real life involved others dying for some people’s well-being/benefit? (allegory=pattern of symbols corresponding to a pattern in the outside world)
War, fire fighters, rescue workers, protests, Tiananmen Square, slavery, economic slavery, stock market, casinos/gambling, gruesome survival tales, etc…
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