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Everyone knows what will happen to her and it seems all everyone can think is how they are glad that it did not happen to them - this year. Tessie has to speak up because she has nothing to lose. She exclaims that the lottery "isn't fair" (218), but no one will agree with her (out loud). Instead, the townspeople are encouraged to get the dirty deed over with so life can return to normal. "The Lottery" demonstrates how we can become fearful of change when we allow our lives to stay in the same rut for too long.
Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" illustrates what happens when we are open to change. Louise did not really know how unhappy she was until she saw the opportunity for change. However, once she accepted the change that life was presenting her, she felt alive. We read that her "pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body" (Chopin 636) when she realized what the news of her husband's death meant. Louise felt that there were "no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and believe that have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature" (636). Louise was willing to give up the idea of love for the "possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized...
Louise is the perfect example of someone that turns a tragedy into a positive experience. She could not change what had happened to her and rather than be come weak and fearful, she decides to take charge of her life and do something different. In short, she was not afraid.
The Lottery" and "The Story of an Hour" illustrate the importance of change - whether we want it or not. Both stories reveal how change is necessary for life to continue to be constructive. Without change, life becomes static and we become boring creatures of habit. Tessie and Louise knew that change was good but it was another thing to try and convince others of this. We need change so we do not become robotic and, essentially, lifeless. It is better to accept change with a positive attitude and decide to make it work to your benefit than to live afraid and unchanged.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul, ed. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company. 1990. Pp635-7
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Cassill, R.V. ed. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1981. pp. 617-25.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul, ed. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company. 1990. Pp635-7
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Cassill, R.V. ed. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1981. pp. 617-25.
Kosenko notes, the village in "The Lottery" "exhibits the same socio-economic stratification that most people take for granted in a modern, capitalist society. Summers, whose name reflects the time of year in which the lottery takes place, is in charge of the solemn ritual. Although not portrayed as corrupt, Summer nevertheless represents an inherently violent element within modern capitalist hierarchies. Graves, whose name symbolizes death itself, is the town
The symbol in the story is the black box from which the villagers draw every year. The fact that the box grows shabbier and shabbier without being changed is an evidence of how the people generally cling to traditions and refuse to let go: "Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done. The black
Other characters also make a strong contribution to the theme of the story. The character of Delacroix is important because this name reflects the role of religion in this brutality, again pointing the reader to the idea that religion is a contributing factor to mankind's brutality. "De la croix" is French for "of the cross," but the character's name has been bastardized by the villagers. This symbolizes how religion has
Jackson was born in San Francisco, to father Leslie Jackson, an English immigrant and Geraldine Bugbee Jackson, who was related to the famous California architects, an association some give credit for driving her sense of place and detail for architecture in her stories. She spent most of her years in Vermont and is associated as a New England writer. The last work Jackson published, like the Lottery was one
Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a masterful short story that tricks its reader initially, and later surprises the reader into the understanding of the dynamics of scapegoat. The value of the book lies in its narrative technique that engages the reader dramatically in the textual process in such a manner that the reader participates in the act of scapegoat by means of identification with the townspeople (Lenemaja 1975). Simultaneously, when the
But there are also similarities in the characters, the setting, the plot, themes and the use of metaphor and symbolism. For example, the setting of the story is in another village, namely, Greenwich Village in New York City, where the main character, Hilda Clarence, works "as a stenographer in a coal and coke concern" (49), similar to Mr. Summer and his coal business in "The Lottery." Ms. Clarence also