Shirley Jackson Using Color To Symbolize Cruelty and Evil...

Shirley Jackson What is humanitys true nature? Are people basically good, or basically evil? Over the centuries, many people have tried to find the answer to this question, to no avail. Author Shirley Jackson takes a definite stance on the issue throughout her work, arguing that people are basically evil. Many times, this theme is obviously stated in her stories, but sometimes it is woven in more subtly. In her short stories The Lottery,† Elizabeth, and Flower Garden, Shirley Jackson uses color to symbolize the cruelty and evil common in everyday life. In â€Å"The Lottery,† Jackson tells the story of what appears to be an innocent festival in a small, rural town in the United States. All of the townspeople gather around a black†¦show more content†¦Traditionally, the color black is used to represent death; in the context of a ritual stoning, it represents both death and malice on the part of the townspeople participating in the event. As Cleanth Brooks and Robert Warren say in â€Å"Shirley Jackson: ‘The Lottery’†, much of the story is a commentary on the practice of scapegoating common in old ritual practices and in current ones such as tabloid reporting (224). This is also symbolized with the black box—the townspeople â€Å"[keep] their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool† (Jackson â€Å"The Lottery† 292) that the box is kept on when it is brought out, and focusing any visible nerves on the black box and the black mark that means their death. In this way, the color black becomes a physical manifestation of the townspeople’s cruelty, as they have come to fear it rather than the people who may kill them during the ritual. The theme of color used to symbolize cruelty is continued in Jackson’s short story, â€Å"Elizabeth,† although it is more subtle than in some of her other stories. The titular character is a disappointed woman in her thirties, carrying on a loveless relationship with her boss. In general, the theme of hidden evil in everyday life is harder to pick out than in many of Jackson’s other stories—there is no horrifying twist or startling revelation to make the theme more obvious. Cruelty is instead shown in the