Deft Social Commentary on American

¶ … deft social commentary on American society, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" shares in common many literary elements with other short stories. In "The Lottery," Jackson uses a hyperbolic symbol of social conformity: a grotesque game in which all the townspeople take part. Similarly, Ralph Ellison describes the "Battle Royal," in which the title event involves brutality just as the lottery does. Although Ellison discusses race more than Jackson does, both authors refer to the underlying theme of social conformity.

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Nathaniel Hawthorne both also use an outlandish and macabre central symbol to convey the main themes. Although these four stories are strikingly different, they share in common elements related to theme, setting, and characterization. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" details a small town in America, a setting that is crucial to the events that unfold in the story.

Although perhaps not as small of a town, Jackson, Mississippi comes across as being a small and provincial setting for William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" takes place in a small Southern town. Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" takes place in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. Therefore, the small-town setting is one literary elements shared in common by all these short stories. The small-town setting is instrumental in shaping the stories' central themes and their plots, too.

In each of these stories, social conformity is a key theme that helps shape the main characters. In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the ritual of the lottery could only take place in a town in which the residents were afraid to speak out. Conformity is expected, which is why the grotesque ritual is carried out. In "Young Goodman Brown," social conformity is expected via the town's religious institutions.

The forest ritual in "Young Goodman Brown" is akin to the lottery in "The Lottery." Ellison's "Battle Royal" would not have taken place in New York City or any other cosmopolitan place. A small town element is necessary to convey the idea that small towns breed small mindedness. Similarly, Jackson, Mississippi is an apt setting for Faulker to describe the townspeople's impressions of Emily. Characterization is similar among these four stories.

A sense of loneliness and isolation pervades "The Lottery," as well as "A Rose for Emily," "Young Goodman Brown," and "Battle Royal." In each of these stories, the protagonist seems up against a mob mentality, and has to decide whether to submit to that mentality or challenge it. All of the characters find it difficult to express and assert themselves. Of all these characters, Young Goodman Brown and the narrator of Battle Royal are the ones who can best assert themselves.

Tessie Hutchinson in "The Lottery" fails to do so and she dies. Just as the townspeople do not intervene on behalf of Emily Grierson in Faulker's short.