The slaying of Susie devastated her whole town and brought them closer together. Losing such a young and bright student such as Susie in a horrible way such as murder and rape, the town would react in the same manner because murder never took place in their small Pennsylvania town. Death is portrayed as a sad and depressing entity. Although everyone will experience some sort of death in their lifetime, many do not know how to handle a sudden and brutal one. For the Salmon family, the death of their daughter Susie is a tremendous task to try and cope with because of how she died.
Comparatively, she is unexpectedly thrown into the unknown when her family dies and she is left to help the community and forget about her needs. As the panic sets in when she enters the shaft, she is facing more and more doubts about her future separately. Brooks also shows the reader an insight into the world of the people living with the Plague: dark, dangerous, and seemingly hopeless. Overall, Brooks uses symbolism to show aspects of the Plague’s influence on Anna and the town in
"If you had not been born Mama would still be alive she died because of you. You are bad luck." This quote is about the death of her mother due to her birth and all her siblings blame her for the death. This example is showing a significant event of the theme 'family relationships' because now all her siblings hate and treat Adeline unfairly because they blame her for the death when it wasn't even her fault. Also since this incident now all of her siblings pick on her and call her 'bad luck'.
The elaborate ritual of the lottery is designed so that all villagers have the same chance of becoming the victim. The story ends with a popular housewife of the town being unjustifiably stoned to her death. As she dies, she cries for help and it is as if she is no longer a person. It no longer matters who she was. The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck is a short story of an
The Puritans frown upon Hester and Pearl, the product of Hester’s sin. The public humiliation and obstacles Hester goes through invigorates her with strength to triumph. On the day Hester is led to the town scaffold, the townspeople, who had no sympathy for her, taunted her with cruel and harsh words. When Hester is questioned about who was Pearl’s
Situational irony exists in a story when a discrepancy occurs in what the character or characters think will happen and what actually happens. Situational irony occurs in “The Lottery” in the imagery depicted in the opening paragraphs, the characters and their dialogue with each other and the introduction of Mrs. Hutchinson as she arrives late. The most ironic point of the story is the attitude of the villagers, which will be addressed in each of the examples above. In the opening sentence you find a description of the day. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full sunny day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” With this description you don’t anticipate the dark events of the end of the story.
The extent of Hester’s punishment ran into the very fabric of the town. Everyone showed up to witness and gossip about Hester, most of it being negative (Hawthorne 49-50). Now imagine none of that happening, imagine the Puritan society and replace it with today’s society. The Puritan society is and was fundamentally flawed. They punished Hester for sleeping with another man when she was under the assumption that her previous husband was dead.
The people of the town were pressured, accused, and tested simple tests but the girls would scream with such pain whenever the accused spoke. The victims, the girls, and the judges all were consumed in the anarchy and lost all sanity. Were people convicted of not only being witches in Salem but across the country suspicion arose and people convicted women of being witches for the simplest causes. Two girls took a joke way too far and caused disorder across the country. Not all "witches" were from Salem, MA.
As Francie watches the women through stones at Joanna and her baby, she realizes that the women are hypocrites and decides that she hates them because “they stuck together for only one thing: to trample on some other woman...whether it was by throwing stones or by mean gossip.” One of the most crucial events in Francie’s loss of innocence was her experience with the sex offender. This is the first time she has had any experience with sex of any kind and it is a very emotionally scarring event for her to have to deal with. The final event that shows a loss of innocence in this section of the story is the death of Johnny. Francie has to watch as her father’s health declines. His death causes her belief in God to diminish and she begins to see the world in a different
Symbolism In a Jury of her Peers, Susan Glaspell creates a story which demonstrates how women were marginalized and treated without significance. In her story the narrator never comes right out and states who killed Mr. Hale. Yet as the story develops it is almost certainly Mrs. Wright who committed the murder. Glaspell uses many symbols as a vehicle to illustrate the turmoil and pain Mrs. Wright was in: the burst jars of jelly, the knotted quilt and most importantly the caged bird. Charlotte Perkins Gilman authored The Yellow Wallpaper, and writes a somewhat autobiographical tale about a woman who is slowly descending toward a mental breakdown.