what might the box symbolize? what evidence supports your answer? Suggest an unspoken message that Jackson wants to convey to the reader about the lottery.
The importance of the box is obscured as much as the whole tradition. Nobody much cared where the box was stored. The box had no intrinsic meaning anymore. It only became another neglected part of the process in order to choose a person to sacrifice.
The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box, and it was then taken to the safe of Mr. Summers' coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning. The rest of the year, the box was put way, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office. and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there.
The unspoken message has to do with a few themes you can consider. One is tradition without any intrinsic meaning . You can check out themes below:
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-lottery-and-other-stories/study-guide/themes
