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
This is due to the power of group pressure which suppresses and shuns the views of the individual. The townspeople in this story are not evil. Individually, many of them seem downcast and hesitant about the lottery, dreading what is to come. Also, many of the townspeople feel empathy for the younger villagers showing relief when they are not picked. Joe Romano conveys this in his essay “Sacrifice, Solidarity, and Senselessness” by stating, “The fear that the village girls show when they see Nancy choose her slip of paper and the “general sigh” that the crowd exhibits fear that the village feels as it risks its youngest members” (Romano 849).
While reading “The Lottery” I felt many emotions, I was confused when Mrs. Hutchinson was so upset about her husband drawing the paper with the black spot. I was also very surprised when I realized what was going to happen to her after drawing the black dot. It was shocking and horrible. The fact they only had one lottery a year and that other towns were talking about quitting and some already had also confused me. The whole story was very suspenseful and rather dramatic.
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.
(Page1) This shows that Abigail is not happy with her life right now. The audience might feel bad for her as they identify with the fact that sometimes getting what you want still doesn’t make you happy. Secondly when Abigail says “George Jacobs he comes again and again and raps me with his stick- the same spot all this week, look at the lump I have” (page2). This portrays that Abigail is an innocent girl and she is a victim. The audience will
Failure to this, leads to harsh penalties and measures towards the main characters, John Proctor and Tessie Hutchinson. In Miller’s The Crucible, injustice is caused mainly because of societies failure to question their superstitious
Miss Strangeworth wrote this letter to Helen and Dan Crane because she didn't agree with their parenting skills, so to Miss Strangeworth they were wrong. Throughout the whole story, Miss Strangeworth showed symbols that related to her malicious ways and how she felt she was better compared to the rest of her town. A symbol in the story that relates how Miss Strangeworth feels empowered in her town, was when she would always write her cruel letters. Miss Strangeworth would write the anonymous letters in her trimmed quill pen, although she had a gold-frost fountain pen. This is a symbol because Miss Strangeworth feels as the people who she is sending these letters to are not important enough to her to use the gold pen.
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.
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.
Sabrina Branham Mrs. Kathryn Brackett English 102-85 23 February 2015 Symbolism in “The Lottery” “The Lottery” is a great example of literary symbolism. Symbolism is used in this story to help the author reflect on how the human nature is flawed and impure, no matter how pure a person thinks they are, or how pure their environment may seem. “The Lottery” is a very effective story which raises many questions about how pointless the nature of one’s humanity about violence and tradition actually is. This story is clearly an expression of how the author, Shirley Jackson, feels about mankind and the evil nature one has hidden behind rituals and traditions. Her coldness and her lack of compassion is obvious.