Next Peter suggests that "Mr. Graves [is] the village's second most powerful government official ("A Reading of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery""). Mr. Graves" job is the postmaster and the preparer of the lottery slips. Mr. Martin, the man who holds the box securely on the stool, owns probably the town's only grocery store which makes him wealthy man number three in the town. All of these men have a certain wealth and power over the town and Peter Kosenko believes that the lottery may connect to the work ethic of the town's people, "not to encourage work per se but to reinforce an inequitable social division of labor" (A Reading of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery""). Furthermore, they may use the lottery's winner as an example of a person who does not make an effort to be good at his work, hence the phrase "lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" ("The Lottery, 382). .
Not only does authority play a key role in the lottery, but common rituals also play a role in its continuance. For example, the black box, which villagers believe was "made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village" ("The Lottery," 379). Shirley Jackson even goes as far as to say that although the tattered black box was splintered and no longer completely black, the people of the town didn't like to upset tradition so they did not want to make a new one or repair the old one. Christoph Brietsprecher states, " the people were insecure about changing to a more efficient substance [paper instead of woodchips], or a new container [the black box], shows their distrust of progress" (Analysis and Interpretation of The Lottery"). One can tell that the village holds a firm grasp onto the past from how the lottery is organized. For example, only the head of the household, a man or a son that is able to work, can draw in the first round.
