Book Reports / Writing an introduction - religious symbolism in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson [2]

I'm writing a paper on religious symbolism in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, in order to introduce the paper, should I give a brief summary of the story? Also, my thesis is a bit shaky, any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thesis:
In Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery", she uses symbolism to take a story with no outwardly religious connections and give it a strong religious undertone.