I need a good point to make about the symbolism in my essay on "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson my body paragraphs will either be about symbols of life and death or symbols of tradition and crumbling tradition. or maybe even all of them.. what could my thesis statement be about that shows how all of the symbolism works together to highlight the theme? what could i even say the theme is? if this doesn't sound like such a great idea, then is there some other way i can organize my essay? i dont HAVE to use symbolism either..

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Keeping the thematic focus suggested above, you could add on to this by developing arguments about the symbols of death that are prominent in the story.  The color black which we often associate with death pervades the story in its use for important items in the lottery:  the black box and the black-spotted paper.  You might also mention the symbolism behind characters' names such as Mr. Summers (ironically) and Mr. Graves.

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