The black box further symbolizes people's aversion to change, "Mr. 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" (Jackson 540). Old Man Warner, for instance, does not want to hear of change. He calls those agitating for doing away with the lottery a "Pack of crazy fools" and adds that there is no good to keep on listening to "the young folks" because "nothing's good enough for them" and that "there's always been a lottery" (541). The box is old and splintered but the people still use it, accepting it as a basic part of their lives, "the present box had been made with pieces of the box hat had preceded it" (540). Although they do not have the original box, they still keep this tradition going.
Another device that the author has employed is the use of foreshadowing. As the reader impatiently waits for the prize of the lottery, the author prepares in some of the eventual outcomes. Early in the story, it is told of Bobby Martin and other boys were stuffing their pockets with "the smoothest and roundest" stones (Jackson 539). The gathering of stones seems a bit odd. It is not clear why the stones and their significance at this point, but at the end of the story, the reader is hit by the realization that the author did prepare the audience for this dramatic ending, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready" (543). The stones are actually "the prize" for "the winner", Tessie Hutchinson, who gets stoned to death.
Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" has also employed quite a number of literary elements to bring out its message. The main literary element used in the story is the Southern Gothic, which employs grotesque and bizarre elements not for frightening the reader but for uncovering the human psyche especially the underlying and dark motives.
