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The short story "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, raises many questions towards the destructive rituals of mankind. Symbolism plays an important role throughout the whole story. The story takes a deeper look at human nature by displaying at least three typical attitudes of man while living and interacting in a society. These attitudes include man's unwillingness to accept the consequences of societal actions, man's tendency to follow elder’s thoughts, and man's acceptance of a tradition that may be immoral simply because he has always done so. And these attitudes are shown by each character’s name, action and also the setting. One of the most important evidence of symbolism throughout the essay is the symbolic black box. This symbolism centralizes the whole story. The reference to the black box as a symbol of death can be seen in many stances throughout the story. For instance, when the box is first introduced, "the villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool (where the box was placed on) (78)". People are afraid and the distance they kept was not due to their fear of the box, because the box was an indication of death. Meanwhile, the further illustration of how the villagers stored the