Every year the village would place a wooden black box and place their names inside of it. ... Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about "making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (265). ... The significance of the wooden black box is that someone will draw a person's name and that person will be stoned to death. ... When the black box is introduced it changes the mood and atmosphere to the story and the people. ... The black box presents all evil acts that have happened to the people in the past. ...

• Word Count: 556
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The black box is an ill-omened symbol, marking one unlucky winner to be morbidly murdered by their fellow villagers. ... The villager's attitude towards the black box and its traditions goes unquestioned. ... Summer often suggests having a new box made but his suggestion goes unanswered because "no one liked to upset even as much has tradition was represented by the black box " (134). ... The color black is well known to generally symbolize for death. ... The black box of death is placed on top of the three legged stool of the Christian Trinity. ...

• Word Count: 686
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The atmosphere is serious, where the children are "gathered around quietly." (335) The black box is the central theme or idea in the story. ... Someone's fate lies in an dull object, the black box. ... The box is symbolic of our dislike of change; it is old and splintered (337) showing that we cling to what is familiar rather than change and it also symbolizes the traditions of the community. No one in the little town questions the origin of the black box, but accepts it as part of their lives. ...

• Word Count: 454
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

This quote makes me pictures a mob of people standing around the black box and Mr. ... When they reached into the black box, they reach into the unknown. The color black is very symbolic. ... When you"re in a completely black room, you can't see anything. ...

• Word Count: 519
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The reader eventually learns that the gathering is part of a sick and twisted tradition in which the members of the village drew slips of paper from a box and who ever drew the slip with a black spot was stoned to death. ... The black box holds the key between life and death to every person in the town. It seemed as though the black box came to life and chose Mrs. ...

• Word Count: 746
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Each head of household, usually a male, is require to draw a paper from a black box. The family representative who draws out the slip with a black dot will then redraw. This time, the black box contains enough white slips representing each member of the family minus one, which will be replacing with a slip containing a black dot. Whatever family member draws the paper with the black dot is the final winner but their winning will result in being stoned to death. ...

• Word Count: 670
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Also, their attitude toward the black box that holds the slips of paper was one of indifference. "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 place faded or stained." ...

• Word Count: 717
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A black box has always been used to hold the slips of paper for the lottery. "The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born" (Jackson 348). ... After one family draws the black dotted paper, another drawing takes place. All members in the family are given a slip of paper, again with only one containing a black dot. ... Hutchinson draws the black dotted paper, no one retreats from the task at hand. ...

• Word Count: 940
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson In the story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, villagers gather together in the center of the town each year for an annual lottery. There is much excitement and interest at the rituals of the event proceeds. The winning family is chosen by ballot, and from tha...

• Word Count: 512
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Ignoring their signals, Davis allegedly pressed on until drivers boxed him in and forcibly removed him from the car. ... The jury of seven men and five women, (six black, the rest Caucasian) deliberated for 3.5 hours before returning with a verdict. ...

• Word Count: 1232
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

DEAD MAN WALKING Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is a Catholic nun who exemplifies the compassion of Jesus in her work with death row prisoners. While teaching in a Louisiana ghetto, she begins corresponding with Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), who has be...

• Word Count: 2281
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

For eighteen years, Dennis Williams, along with three other black men, lived on death row. ... At the bottom of a box, they found a street file showing that within a week of the crime, the police knew who the real killers were, but they buried that informat! ...

• Word Count: 2692
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School