Symbolism is a literary technique in which you find different meanings in even the simplest sentences in the story and can reveal different ideas. In “The Lottery” there are numerous amounts of symbolism from start to finish. In the story “TheLottery,” the entire village must come together to get a card from a black box. Most of the documents are white blank sheets and one with a black dot. The person who collects the black dotted paper will be sacrificed by stoning and will be used for the harvest. Throughout the story, there are many symbolic references related to the needs of the characters and most of them are related to death, religion and tradition. One of the characters is Mr. Summers who represents life and fertility. As we read in the article (123HelpMe), “It is the season of growth, the season of life.” The story also states, "It shows that sacrifice and the lottery itself are more important than the new ideas presented by Mr. Summers and some other villagers." Summer is the season when they would sacrifice someone because they believe that the sacrifice will fertilize the crops. The next character that shows some symbolism is Old Man Warner. He is the oldest citizen to participate in the lottery and believes that everyone should participate for the sake of the crops. As stated in the article (123HelpMe) "He has repeatedly shown 'warning' to younger parents and younger generations of what awaits them if they eliminate the lottery." Old Man Warner believes that it is ridiculous to give up the lottery and that they should keep the tradition alive otherwise they will find themselves in trouble. Another character that displays symbolism is Mr. Graves. His name represents... the center of the card... the characters show much more symbolism in their names. Almost every sentence in a story can reveal different clues and ideas, but you'll have to think outside the box to figure it out. Works Cited Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. Heritage of American literature. Ed. James E. Miller. Vol.2. Austin: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991. 1864. Print.Cassel, Seth. “The symbols in 'The Lottery'” Flamingnet. Litpick, LLC, November 2005. Web.March 17, 2014. Shmoop Editors. "Symbolism, image and allegory: the black box and the three-legged stool." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., and Web. March 17, 2014.Ma, Martine “Literary Analysis Essay: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Wordpress.NP June 10, 2013. Web. Mar 17, 2014.123 Help Me Editors. "Names in the Shirley Jackson Sweepstakes." 123Helpme.123Helpme, Inc., nd Web. March 17 2014.