Cruelty in Democracy & Symbolism in Names in “the Lottery”

黄珊珊（电商201203， 2012011480）

Cruelty in Democracy & Symbolism in Names in “The Lottery”

The short story Lottery is a classic work of famous American novelist, Shirley Jackson. When l first saw the title of this novel, l was intended to see a comedy with a surprise ending. On the contrary, the story surprised me with an ironic, even cruel ending. The whole novel is very simple, just describing the process of an lottery activity in an out-dated town.

First of all, let us talk about the symbolism of some names chosen by Jackson in the novel, which made me have a little sense of cruelty when l first read the English version. The person who was in charge of the lottery activity was called Summers, one of the four seasons, full of bright and warm sunshine and prospect which was compared with the coldness, inhumanity and cruelty of the activity itself. Besides, its plural form represents the pass of time compared with the remain of this out-dated lottery activity. His assistant Graves is the most obvious symbol. Jackson wanted it to suggest us that the result of the lottery activity should be someone’s death and the fate of this activity itself should be buried in graves, which l believe is the true intention of Jackson. Next one l want to mention is Delacroix. The origin meaning of it is of the cross but the writer expressed particularly at the beginning of the story that “the villagers pronounced this name ‘Dellacroy’"and forgot the correct pronunciation. We are indicated that villagers had already forgotten the initial doctrine of Christianity, becoming inhuman and cruel.The "victim" of the story, Tessie Hutchinson, rebelled against the lottery by screaming at the end of the story, "It isn't fair, it isn't right." The name Tessie can be associated with the word “testy” or “tizzy”, which means someone who was in an angry or rebellious state. The name Warner can be seen as a literal warning against ceasing the tradition of the lottery.