In the story "The Lottery" the author had a hidden meaning that suggests an underlying evil in humanity. The story takes place in a small village where everyone seems to know each other. The village is steeped in tradition, like the lottery, that they think will help them grow their crops the coming season. The author was using symbolism via the lottery - human kind is selfish in their own needs, so much so that they're willing to stone one of their own every year in order to have growing crops.
             One of the biggest symbols in this story is when the woman is chosen to be stoned. Her family didn't seem sad, but in fact they seemed to be happy that they themselves were not chosen. There was even a part where someone handed her son a rock, so that he could join in on the violent stoning. This could symbolize that human kind acts selfishly before thinking of someone else.
             I think that the author is trying to symbolize how weak and selfish people can be considering that the villagers have done nothing to change or eradicate the deadly lottery. Some nearby villages had completely stopped utilizing the lottery concept altogether. "There's always been a lottery", Old Man Warner says. "Nothing but trouble in that," he speaks of quitting the event, yet the others just overlook what he says and they continue on with the lottery. Though not all the people seem comfortable with the event, nobody steps up to put an end to it.
             Throughout the story, the author uses symbols to imply darkness and how dark and depraved mankind can be. An example of this was the black box that members of the village had to chose from - the color and the dullness of the box symbolizes how this is not a pleasant event even though one could think that a lottery was supposed to be innocent. Similar to the black box are the slips of paper that they received. The "winning" person would have a big black circle on their slip, symbolizing death.
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