Analytical essay approaches and applications

¶ … Rose for Emily" and "The Lottery"

Change is difficult and most people loathe change because it forces them to do things differently. People do not like change because they tend to become comfortable with routine. Even if change is good, many will view it with doubt and suspicion. Two stories that illustrate how people fear are "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. Change is a natural part of life but Emily cannot accept that because it is difficult and painful to admit her father is gone. For the townspeople in "The Lottery," change is feared because it represents the unknown. Both stories explore this theme from different perspectives.

Routine is comfortable. In "A Rose for Emily," Emily finds comfort in the life her father created for her. She also becomes accustomed to the ways he treats her. Because he thought the world of his daughter, he "had driven away" (Faulkner 455) any marriage prospects when she was young. This seems to be of no consequence when he is alive but after his death, it poses a big problem for Emily. While he thought he was doing her good, he was only setting her up for a lonely adult life. She depended upon him to take care of everything and she could not cope with the change his death forced her to make. The first sign of Emily's resistance to change is her inability to admit that her father is gone. Death is a normal part of life and instead of facing it and moving on, Emily decides to live in the past. She even decides to keep his body in the house until the aldermen drag it out. Emily become comfortable with the routine her father implemented in her life. To accept the change would mean she would have to admit her father was dead and that was something she seemed incapable of doing. She "would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will" (455) because letting go was too difficult.

Routine is familiar. In "The Lottery," the townspeople gather for the ritual every year even though the history of the ritual is lost. The "original paraphernalia" (Jackson 618) from the very first occasion was lost "long ago" (618). The people in this small town instinctively know that something is wrong with the lottery but still they feared "to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (618). Here the people do not know why they gather every year; they only know that they have done it for a very long time. They have allowed themselves to become comfortable with the idea even if it is an awful one. The lottery is accompanied by a "perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off each year" (619) and a "ritual salute" (619). In addition, the people gather with fear before each lottery; the children cannot fully enjoy summer because they know what it means. The people are creatures of habit because "no one likes to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (619) and no one did even as they saw the results of their ways. These people were afraid of what change would bring even though they knew every year they got lucky meant waiting and worrying throughout the next year. The thought of change was more dreadful than the risk of death.