¶ … innovative tradition. Many great authors began their careers by writing short stories. Many authors whom were/are already successful practice and hone their craft by writing short stories. In the 21st century, there are many writers who specialize in short story writing, and there are in fact, new genres of short story writing in fiction, such as flash fiction, which are super short stories. Short stories provide authors a space where there are fewer rules than longer forms of fiction and even nonfiction. Short stories, in a way, are like poetry. Though poems are often bound and structured by many kinds of forms and cadences, poetry is one of the most expressive and difficult forms of literature to construct. The same goes for short stories. Short stories, at first glance, are superficially simple, yet in order to exploit the genre to its fullest and deliver a poignant or gripping emotional impact, an author must be quite skilled. The focus of this paper will be a comparative analysis of two short stories -- one by Shirley Jackson, and the other by the renowned DH Lawrence. Lawrence is known primarily for his passionate, romantic, and sometimes illicit novels, such as Lady Chatterley's Lover. The paper will elaborate upon aspects of the stories such as the author's purpose or theme, the overall plot & structure of the stories, as well as the tone and style of the writing. The paper will argue that there exist a number of differences between the stories, but there are intriguing parallels and overlaps in many areas that are...

Jackson's story, "The Lottery," is a complete exercise in irony, as is Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner." When the average person, particularly the average United States citizen thinks of the lottery, this person thinks of vast sums of money and abundance of jubilation. If in the United States, the average person may generally associate the word "lottery" with the state lottery, Publisher's Clearinghouse, or lotteries regarding sports drafts, as in baseball, football, basketball, etc. The point is that the average person associates the word lottery with prosperity and good fortune. As readers will find is the case in each of these stories, the concept of winning, especially winning something like a lottery or other contest left to chance, such as a horse race in "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the old adage "winning isn't everything" rings absolutely true. Readers must get to the conclusion of each story to experience the full magnitude of the irony each author attempts and succeeds at in each respective story. In "The Lottery," Tessie gets her name drawn more than once, and by more than one person. Tessie definitely wins the lottery of the town, without a doubt. Her prize for her luck is to be stoned to death by the members of her town, presumably including by members of her family as well. Master Paul wins a great deal of money from the horse race and even gets the chance to gloat to his less than nurturing mother. The night of his win, this young man with…