The box is representative of one of the central themes of the story - tradition, and the danger of unthinkingly and unquestioningly continuing traditions without considering their true ramifications. In describing the box, Jackson is exploring the nature of the village's tradition of having a lottery. She says, "the black box...had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born...Mr. Summers spoke frequently...about making a new box, but no one liked to upset...tradition...the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it...constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here...the...box grew shabbier each year...it was...splintered badly along one side...faded...stained". If the box represents the lottery tradition, then it has been around for a long time, is in need of reevaluation, but no one gets around to, or dares, to really look at it or change it.
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