The black box in this story is a symbol of tradition and the villager’s loyalty towards the lottery. When it comes to tradition it is easy to forget the significance, especially when a tradition is very old like the lottery. Shirley Jackson continuously shows the age of this tradition through the box throughout the story by showing the fragileness of the box. Mr. summers had to ‘carry the black wooden box’ and had it ‘resting on the stool’ showing the tiredness of this tradition. They even talked about making a new box, ‘but no one like to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box’. The villagers where so loyal to the lottery that they just allowed it to go on even though every year they connected with this tradition less and less. How the box became so where their thoughts of the tradition as, ‘the black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded and stained.’ There loyalty to the black box is religious and there unwillingness to revamp or rethink the box is odd but yet they can change other aspects of this tradition. There whole being relies on this box alone.

The lottery represents the villagers’ values and morals for society. In this story the lottery is above the law, in some cases people turn a blind eye and claim ignorance to things that happen around them. The longer an action is passed down from generation to