Instead of having close family ties as before, Mrs. Hutchinson now tries to better her odds by endangering her own daughters. The women in the crowd tell her to “be a good sport”(393). Instead of standing with their friend, they expect her to accept the outcome of this random chance draw, that left her holding the slip of paper with the black spot that meant she was to die. The entire town, including the rest of the Hutchinson family, proceeds to choose stones from the pile, previously gathered by the boys, and stone Mrs. Hutchinson to death. This small town seems to be the ideal place to live.
It wasn’t fair (8)”. When it was Tessie’s families turn to draw from the black box to see which member of the Hutchinson family was going to be sacrificed, knowing that once married her daughter could not draw with her family; she tried to convince Mr. Summers to include her married daughter to lessen her chances of being chosen. “There’s Don and Eva, Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. Make them take their chance. Daughters draw with their Husbands’ families, Tessie, you know that as well as anyone else (8).” The tradition of the lottery was held so strong on the town’s members, even Tessie’s own
As a baby, Pearl seems instinctively drawn the A. Symbolically, this suggests a connection between the baby and the A as they are born from the same sin, but some may speculate that the decorative nature of the letter during a time period of particularly bland dress would draw one’s attention. As she grows older, Pearl tortures her mother by giving attention the A. One might argue that the dark nature of her birth (sinful in fact) gives her the impish behavior that inspires her to press Hester’s buttons. 3. What did the townspeople say about Pearl?
Kenley Duke D.E. English Professor Walker October 9th 2012 Analyzing Literature: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Tradition, defined my Webster’s Dictionary, is an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior. Not once does it say that tradition is meant to have good intentions. Such is the case in the “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The villagers in this town gather annually to conduct what they refer to as “the lottery.” This gruesome event selects one of the town members to meet their untimely death by the mid-evil process of stoning.
As Mr. Adams puts in his facts about how the village in the north was talking about giving up the lottery, Old Man Warner replies, “pack of crazy fools, listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them. Next thing you know they’ll be wanting to go back to live in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while” (143). The Hutchinson family shows the faults humans have, such as being a coward and showing indifference. Ms. Hutchinson shows evil and how a mother can risk her own child’s safety and life since she was willing to demand her married daughter to draw to improve her chances of survival. Shirley Jackson shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values.
We wonder if Tessie would have spoken up if it was another family was chosen. What started as a normal day becomes a ritualistic death ceremony. “The Lottery”, may have many meanings it could express different themes and ideas. Most importantly The Lottery discusses conformity and rebellion. The towns people live their lives believing that the day of the lottery is a normal day and that sacrificing one of their will help them have a good crop season; and rebellion in the way that Tessie stood up for herself in front of the whole town to try to stay alive but did not succeed.
In the end, the reader finds that there is a lack of loyalty amongst the people as Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death- with her own children as participants in the murder- and the village is no longer seen as a delightful place but is visualized as evil and vindictive. The feminist approach can also be used to analyze The Lottery through women’s roles, actions, what happens to them, and what is said about them. There are several situations throughout the story that affect how the reader and how society might perceive the role of
Bear Grylls once said “A man's pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance". In The Lottery, the villagers have a type of lottery that results in the death of a villager every time this lottery is held, and the villagers are too proud of this tradition to actually cease these meaningless deaths. Moreover, in The Necklace, the main character, Madame Mathilde, borrows what she thinks is a very expensive necklace from her friend and Mathilde’s vanity doesn’t allow her to actually admit that she loses it and she ends up wasting a decade of her life paying off debts. These two short stories support Grylls’ words by showing how pride or vanity has damaging effects for the characters in the stories, In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, the lottery box and the pearl necklace are symbols of human pride or vanity and show the inevitable downfall that comes
... It’s a shame to say this very day … She’s like a child at play… It’s a shame how you’re lyin’ on her head… I thought sure you would kill her dead… Why don’t you be a nice boy, and take my advice… Keep off Katie’s head… I mean… Get out of Katie’s bed.” (pg,128) After Louis played this song he experienced a sense of euphoria. Although the song wasn’t accepted by a polite Society, but at Pete lala’s, Louis got to play his song and dance on a daily basis. At some point in Louis’s life he found a woman that he would come to marry, this woman’s name was Daisy Parker. Her “profession” was giving men pleasure. Eventually she came to make Louis a frequent customer.
The description of the writer identifying the post war era, “The bombs of the first blitz” (Green)). The presentation of Lawrence chimerical event in the “Rocking Horse Winner “proved that the story is a fairy tale. Green uses irony to capture his audience. Both stories are humanistic as they share the common theme of the effect of society. Paul wanted his mother love and he set to make her rich while Trevor became destruction to fit in with his peers.Inthe “Rocking Horse winner”, the anxiety of waiting to see what happen, sadly it comes to an end ,Hester’s desire was met, poor Paul died.