Character Analysis of the Lottery

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Keairra Reese
“Everyday Use” Comparison/Contrast Essay When the same parent in the same environment brings up two children, one might logically conclude that these children will be very similar, or at least have comparable qualities. In Alice Walkers “Everyday Use”, however, this is not the case. In this story these two sisters, Maggie and Dee, have no similarities and they are very different from each other. Maggie and Dee have different personalities, appearances, and

Keairra Reese
The Lottery”: Old Man Warner Character Analysis

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” Mr. Summers is the shiny surface of the lottery, Mr. Graves is its grim end, and the boys are the vicious, primitive spirit that drives its enjoyment. However, obviously this story is about tradition in a big way, the tradition that no one liked to upset. Given how symbolic the other characters appear to be, there has to be a person who stands in for tradition, and Jackson doesn't disappoint: there's Old Man Warner. Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, has participated in seventy-seven lotteries and is a staunch advocate for keeping things exactly the way they are, has a strong belief in superstition, and doesn’t like to see joke about things that he sees that are supposed to be serious events. Old Man Warner does not believe in any form of change to seventy-seventh year lottery. In the fifth paragraph, the narrator writes that “the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born”(5). In other words, Old man Warner is a bench mark for tradition: if the box is even older that Warner it, or at least pieces of it, must date back to that hazy time when the lottery began. As the oldest man in the village, Old Man Warner seems to take it upon himself to make sure that the village doesn’t change.

Superstition
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