The Lottery by Shirley Jackson shares an atmosphere which is very normal and friendly in the beginning by addressing some festive event to be celebrated by the village where all the people are curious and excited for the reward. The people are gathering in bulk to share that moment and the children are picking stones and chasing each other for some sort of excitement which is normally seen to exist with the nature of a lottery. But later, as the story moves ahead, it becomes scary and horrible when it is concluded that the reward of the lottery id death of the winner. This reflects a sense of sickness in the minds of people to get stuck with the traditions even if they are wrong and illegal to follow.

In my views, the story is based on the era of American rural communities in mostly the mid 20th century where the rural community leaders hold the decision power and their decision was considered as final which was not challenged by anyone. This was a story which demonstrates an era of rural dominations and cruelty followed by the villagers or people by the name of tradition and customs. The challenges faced by the people, which is unfair and cruel and even the people do not have the courage to stand against those traditions and blindly following them at the cost of their lives. This is hence a very mind blowing story in which the author has changed the atmosphere to the complete reversal as the story concludes.

Example

I agree with you on the role of radio as a symbol in the story. In addition to the symbols you discussed, I found a confounding relationship between the appearance of the two radios and the families in the apartment. First, the old radio represents an element of innocence, love, and inner greatness despite the deteriorating outer appearance. Equally, the families remained intact and appeared comfortable and happy. Just like the old radio, as challenges increased, inner happiness and love began to fade and the outer appearance, which is overly expensive, began to take shape. The new radio appears neat with glowing colors that attracted anyone which symbolically represented these families. However, chaos, confusion, secrets, evil plans, conflicts, and war resided on the inner side of the radio. Perhaps accessing the inner part of the families constituted the knowledge and reflection of Jim and Irene’s inner selves as was understanding the content on the radio.