Lunacy in The Lottery, A Rose for Emily, and The Swimmer

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Recommended: Literary analysis a rose for emily mental status

The word crazy is defined as a mentally deranged person, or done in a wild, aggressive manner. However, in many works of writing crazy can be portrayed in a variety of forms. In the Lottery, you see crazy in the concept of society and the blind following of tradition. This story also gives the term for crazy to describe the reactions of the woman who is being stoned. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, in contrast, shows crazy as a result of death and denial. Lastly, by contrast and comparison, you can see crazy by the irrational actions of Neddie in The Swimmer. The Swimmer is different in that it views crazy through mental debility and denial. By looking at these you can see overlapping definitions. Many short stories include unreliable characters as well as absurd problems. Nevertheless these three stories offer perfect examples of connotation in that crazy can be read in many ways.

The Lottery is an excellent example of a senseless society; this is what makes the storyline crazy. In this writing the village members blindly follow the tradition of the Lottery, which entails the chosen person to be stoned to death by community members, friends, and even family. The peoples misguided knowledge makes them believe that it would be crazy not to do the lottery, this is shown when Mr. Adams says “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” and Old Man Warner responds by calling them a “pack of crazy fools” and saying “there is nothing but trouble in that. Warner degrades others decision to go against the tradition of the society (page. 4) General knowledge tells you that stoning a person to death simply because of tradition is wrong, most can agree that in itself is crazy. ...

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...ifferent words. Crazy has a different meaning to many people. These reading are completely different, yet they still can be described by this one word. The lottery uses a crazy society and reaction, A Rose for Emily a crazy woman who is mental ill, and The Swimmer, which gives off a mixture of crazy as a result of past occurrences. This is why you need to process the information given off throughout stories you read. There is usually a different shade of interpretation in each story and you can relate it to others.

Works Cited

Jago, Carol. "Chapter 7: Love and Relationships - A Rose for Emily." Literature & Composition: Reading, Writing, Thinking. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 657-63. Print.

http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

http://202.121.96.130/Download/20091207184417_734640623434.pdf

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