Discussion Topic
Symbolism of Stones in "The Lottery"
Summary:
In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," stones symbolize humanity's inherent violence and the persistence of outdated, brutal traditions. The stoning, a torturous method of execution, reflects society's willingness to engage in cruelty, devoid of mercy. The large stone, particularly, signifies the overpowering force of community-sanctioned violence and the tension between tradition and humanity. Despite friendships, as seen with Mrs. Delacroix, the act of stoning reveals the dark, primal instincts that override personal bonds, illustrating the ritual's deep-rooted savagery.
What do the stones symbolize in "The Lottery"?
The titular ritual of the lottery culminates in the stoning of a selected victim. That stones are used for the killing is significant for several reasons.
Firstly, stoning is an outdated execution practice. Most Westerners likely associate the idea of stoning someone to death with stories from the Bible, a time when this was a standard way of ridding society of adulterers and other social pariahs viewed as threats to communal morality. That the villagers continue to use stones to kill the chosen victim in their ritual, suggests that this practice is a very old one—so old that no one can recall why they do it in the first place.
Secondly, stoning someone to death is a torturous and violent method of killing, far worse than a gunshot or an injection or other quicker (and more modern) ways of ending a life. However, the villagers do not bat an eye...
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at using this horrific and inhumane method. Even the children gather up stones and are expected to join in the proceedings.
Both the ancient evocations of using stones to kill as well as the sheer violence of the method make the stones a symbol of humanity's willingness—and even eagerness—to engage in violence. Through this story of a modern ritual sacrifice, author Shirley Jackson seems to be suggesting that certain behaviors society now claims are irrational or cruel still linger in the human psyche and are an unpalatable but unchanging aspect of human nature.
What does the stone-throwing signify at the end of "The Lottery"?
The ending of Jackson's story is the realization of the town's tradition or practice of throwing stones and pelting one "chosen" individual in the village. In the story, the "chosen one" is Tessie Hutchinson. The meaning of the villagers throwing stones is both literal and symbolic. On the literal end, the villagers literally circle around one individual in the village and pelt that person with stones until they are dead. The opening of the story reflects this as children are running around, building and guarding their piles of stones. A seemingly harmless action is brought to greater significance when Mrs. Delacroix, Tessie's close friend throughout the story, runs over to find a stone so big that she needs two hands to carry it. The ending of "and they were upon her" reflects how the town draws the one person who will be pelted with stones. The meaning of throwing stones is an act of targeting and exclusion, whereby one person is selected to be victimized as "the other." In a more symbolic meaning, the act of throwing stones at the end of the story is an inversion of the Christian notion of "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." In Jackson's short story, all of the "sinners" are freely casting stones at one who is relatively blameless in the process. The symbolic meaning of being able to throw stones also reflects a very savage and primal way of resolving conflicts, symbolic of how the practice of silencing voices is something that has been around for as long as time itself. In this, the idea of casting stones is something that reflects the sad, but time honored practice of targeting individuals as the recipients of social scorn and rejection.
Why are the stones important in "The Lottery"?
In "The Lottery," the stones are important for a number of reasons. Firstly, the stones foreshadow the murder of Tessie Hutchinson at the end of the story. This foreshadowing begins in the second paragraph of the story when the narrator describes the children stuffing their pockets with stones, selecting the "smoothest and roundest" ones, and making a pile of them in the corner.
Secondly, the stones act as a symbol of human violence throughout the story. Through the use of this symbol, Jackson makes the point that every human has a capacity for violence. Note, for example, that even children are involved in the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson. Nobody is too young or too old to be involved in this barbaric ritual.
Similarly, the stones are the only surviving relic of this historic tradition:
Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.
The stones, therefore, represent the darker side of human nature. Jackson argues that humans cannot escape their propensity for extreme and illogical acts of violence.
What does the large stone represent in "The Lottery"?
When Tessie Hutchinson arrives for the lottery, she goes right to Mrs. Delacroix. She remarks that she "'Clean forgot what day it was,'" and both women "laughed softly." Tessie explains that she believed her husband was working in their backyard, and then she suddenly realized he and her kids were gone; this sparked her memory and she "'came a-running.'" This kind of casual chatter seems to indicate that the two women are friends, familiars. Tessie even taps her friend on the arm, as if to say "farewell," before she makes her way up to her family in the crowd. Despite this apparent relationship, however, when Tessie draws the marked paper, Mrs. Delacroix seems to forget all about the friendship and she picks up a large stone, so large that she needs two hands to carry it. This stone can be interpreted as a symbol of the significance of tradition in this community, no matter how outmoded or nonsensical or inhumane the tradition is.
The narrator has mentioned that the black box used in the lottery has grown "shabbier each year" and is chipped and splintered in many places. However, whenever Mr. Summers brings up the idea of making a new one, it can never prevail on the others to do so because "no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, thinks there is "'Nothing but trouble'" in the idea of quitting lotteries, as other towns have done, and he seems most interested in maintaining the tradition only because it is a tradition. He says, "'There's always been a lottery.'" It is difficult for people to give up what is familiar, what feels right and normal to them, even if it isn't, and the size of Mrs. Delacroix's stone shows us that this community values tradition over kindness, friendship, and even humanity.
The large stone represents the most intense form of community sanctioned violence. Mrs. Delacroix had been depicted as Tessie's friend throughout the narrative. They had been interacting with intimate knowledge of the other. At the same time, they had been close throughout the selection process. Yet, when Tessie's name is pulled, their loyalty and friendship evaporates almost with frightening abandon.
When Mrs. Delacroix finds the large stone, it is a moment in which one sees how the allure of violence and cruelty is something that is intrinsic into human consciousness. Jackson describes this moment as quite telling: "Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. 'Come on,' she said. 'Hurry up." When Mrs. Delacroix picks up the large stone with so much zeal and enthusiasm, the large stone represents the vehicle for her cruelty and violence. The large stone is a representation of what human beings are capable of doing when they are following social norms and embracing socially sanctioned acts of cruelty.
While the picking up of the large stone by Mrs. Delacroix during the stoning of Tess Hutchinson can be interpreted in many ways, let us look at what Helen Nebeker, a critic, writes in her article " 'The Lottery': Symbolic Tour de Force," which was published in American Literature (vol. 46, no. 1) in 1974.
The Delacroix family, whose last name is French for "from the cross," already has a symbolic name which elicits thoughts of martyrdom, such as the one experienced by Jesus on the cross. Ironically, the family shows none of the signs of goodness that often come with the view of a martyr. In fact, the collective attitude of the Delacroix clan, based on their reaction to the lottery, is that of making martyrs out of others, namely, whoever is picked during the drawing. Proof of this is the fact that they are the first family mentioned in the story that is fully engaged in the process of collecting stones, for what will become a macabre and bloody activity later in the day.
Mrs. Delacroix, a friend of Mrs. Graves, speaks quite candidly to Tess before the lottery starts, during it, and always shows kindness toward everyone. When Tess is finally revealed to be the "winner" of the lottery, the Delacroix children quickly step up to the stoning, as they had been collecting rocks from the start. Mrs. Delacroix, however, picks up a stone so large that she needs both hands to lift it.
The Lottery--Shirley Jackson
...the pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."
So: Based on the analysis of the Delacroix clan, we can infer a few things. First, that the large stone was picked on purpose by Mrs. Delacroix so that she WOULD NOT be able to hurt Tessie. If she cannot lift it, how can she possibly throw it?
Second, that the large stone is meant to hurt Tessie in the worst way possible because Mrs. Delacroix, like her family, may have psychopathic trends. Weren't they all collecting stones more than avidly from the very beginning?
Third, that the large stone represents duality: Mrs. Delacroix follows and obeys the status quo of the village by participating in the lottery. However, she really does not intend to fully participate and makes herself almost unable to carry the stone. This may show a fragment of humanity still left in her character.
Therefore, the large stone represents doubt. When one is sure to do something, and do it well, one does not use the hardest or more difficult tools to accomplish a mission...unless one is not fully sure on whether that mission should be accomplished or not.
What metaphor do the stones represent in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"?
I need to disagree with the basic premise of your question because I believe you are confusing metaphors and symbols. Let's talk about both, so you are able to use literary terms with precision and apply them to any analysis you do in literature.
A metaphor, simply put, is something you say or write that describes or characterizes something as something else. For example, I might say "His heart was a stone." Anyone reading that knows perfectly well that no one has a heart that is a literal stone. What I am conveying is that this person's heart has some stone-like qualities. This is a person we might also call "hardhearted." I am trying to show a person who is unloving, someone who is unable to engage in ordinary human emotions. Our speech and writing are filled with such metaphors, when we say things like "It's raining cats and dogs," or "You are my sunshine." In "The Lottery," those stones are not being used as a metaphor at all. They are actual stones in the story, in the pockets of the boys, piled up in a corner, and finally used to kill Tessie.
The stones are being used as a symbol in the story. A symbol is meant to represent something else, meant to remind us of something, inside or outside the story. In The Great Gatsby, for instance, the light that Gatsby gazes longingly at is a symbol of his yearning for Daisy. In Huckleberry Finn, the Mississippi River is a symbol of freedom and of journey. In "The Lottery," what are the stones a symbol of? They represent violence, certainly, and they also evoke ancient times, when people actually were stoned to death. In fact, there are still places in the world where people are stoned to death. They represent a lack of mercy, I would say, as well, since this is a dreadful way to carry out a death sentence.
If Jackson had chosen to say the people in the village had hearts of stone, that would be a metaphor. But she uses them to symbolize violence, a lack of mercy, and an ancient and ugly ritual. This makes them symbols in the story. As a literary analyst, it is important for you to understand this difference.