This essay compares and contrasts the settings and atmospheres of two celebrated short stories: Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner." Both stories explore the darker dimensions of human behavior — mob violence and unchecked greed, respectively — but employ markedly different settings to do so. Lawrence grounds his tale in recognizable post-WWI English locations and horse-racing venues, while Jackson uses a deliberately nameless village to suggest universality. The essay examines how each author's choice of time, place, and atmosphere shapes character response and reinforces thematic meaning, ultimately arguing that setting is central to both stories' critiques of human nature.
The paper demonstrates a point-by-point comparative structure, addressing a shared element (setting, then temporality, then atmosphere) across both texts before moving to the next element. This organization keeps the comparison tight and prevents the essay from becoming two separate summaries stitched together.
The essay opens with brief thematic framing of both stories, then provides a short plot overview of each. It proceeds to compare geographical settings, then temporal settings and seasonal symbolism, and finally the emotional atmosphere each story creates and how characters respond within it. A short conclusion synthesizes the similarities and differences uncovered through the setting-based analysis. The structure is straightforward and suits the comparative task well.
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence are two compelling short stories that both engage with the darker side of humanity. In "The Lottery," one of the fundamental themes is the viciousness and brutality characteristic of even the most civilized of societies. "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a fable that highlights human greed and the dangers of avarice. Both stories analyze human behavior and its consequences, with the differences lying in the kind of behavior depicted and the consequences associated with it. The setting helps to focus attention on these similarities and differences, as well as on how the characters within each setting react to the world around them.
"The Rocking-Horse Winner" is about a mother consumed by greed. This greed becomes so extreme that it estranges her from her children. The estrangement leads her son, Paul, to go to desperate lengths in order to help his mother. It is important to note that the momentary respite provided by Paul's winnings only serves to intensify the mother's greed, feeding the voices in the house that drive the children to madness. The didactic story ends with D.H. Lawrence showing the reader the danger of greed by allowing the mother to acquire the wealth she covets — but only at the cost of her son's life.
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a short story whose central message is delivered through a twist revealed only at the end, exposing the darkness of society and the people who inhabit it. The reader never learns the nature of the lottery's "prize" until the very end, when the frightening implication of the piles of stones collected by the children at the story's opening is brought full circle. The ending conveys the idea that even the most advanced societies are capable of compelling and executing revolting acts against their own members — including entirely innocent people — in the service of selfish or communal pursuits. This may be linked to the inability of individuals within the group to stand up and object to the violence. In the end, all participate in the forbidding act that brings the tale to its conclusion.
"The Rocking-Horse Winner" takes place in England in the years immediately following the First World War. The locations within the story include a home in an anonymous area in or near London, Richmond Park in London, a car journey to a home in Hampshire County southwest of London, and Lincoln Racecourse in Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The narrator references major English horse races well known to readers when the story was first published in 1926. These races include "the Grand National Handicap Steeplechase at the Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, the Royal Ascot at Windsor, west of London, the Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs in Surrey, southeast of London, the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and again, the Lincoln, at Lincoln Racecourse in Lincoln, Lincolnshire" (Cummings, 2010, p. 1). The races, the gambling, the death brought on by the son's actions, and the greed fueling those actions are all rooted in the story's setting. The setting is pivotal not only in establishing the story's atmosphere but also in providing the catalyst for the plot and driving it toward its tragic conclusion.
Unlike "The Rocking-Horse Winner," "The Lottery" contains almost no description of specific places or references to locations readers would recognize. The setting is a small, unnamed village in the middle of summer, with no specific year given. The namelessness of the village underscores its universality. It adds a layer of horror to the story: the lottery could take place anywhere, in any small town. Unlike "The Rocking-Horse Winner," where the action is confined to a particular region and associated with a specific cultural institution such as horse racing, the violence of the lottery cannot be contained to a specific area or a particular group of people. The references to other towns that also hold lotteries reinforce the sense that Jackson is critiquing society as a whole rather than a single community.
Jackson, S. (2008). The lottery. Mankato, MN: Creative Education.
Lawrence, D.H., & Learning Corporation of America (1980). The rocking horse winner. Northbrook, IL: Learning Corp. of America.
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