Love In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

There are 7.125 billion people who live on Earth. Each and every human being has at least a fraction of love in them, in some a surplus. Therefore, love can be found just about anywhere. Love is such a huge word. Love can mean so many different things, it all depends on the person asked. Some of the different forms of love are, healthy and unhealthy love, passions, attraction, homosexuality, etc. The majority of people have had at least some type of love throughout their life. Some people unfortunately do not have a family that has loved them all through their life. For some, love is present in their life constantly. There are a lot of things that play a role in how people love, and what they consider love to be. Biology, physcology, attraction,

communication, and some much more. Also people who come from a split home, tend to have more trust issues when it comes to love. They tend to be less likely to want to get married. Divorce changes a lot for people who come from a split home. Everyone in his or her life can relate to love; therefore, love is the most important theme in American literature.
There are many different ways to view the theme love. People’s idea of love typically comes from the idea of “happily ever after” in fairytales. For many young girls, this paints a picture perfect image of what love should be. What these little girls are not shown, is what happens after the princess and prince charming ride off into the sunset. Fairytales do not show kids what all happens with marriage. Fairytales show nothing but a perfect love story. With marriage and love there comes difficulties and complications. These things are not shown in those types of love stories. The “perfect love story” puts this imagine in the children's head, so as they start to grow up they start to see that the movies are not what happens in real life. There is no relationship that is perfect, and children should be shown this (Chapman 4). Love is so easily found in life, especially literature.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of love is expressed during the drawing.

The lottery is held every year in this little town. It has been a local event for over a decade. The surrounding areas also used to hold their own lottery in their town. Now the majority of the surrounding towns stopped holding such an event as the lottery. They stopped the event because they saw just how cruel it was. During the drawing there is a lack of love. The people of the town could not care less about what happens to the other families. All they care about is the fact that they do not want their family to get stuck with the dot. With that being said, there is a lot of love that goes on in the families during the drawing. The families all worry about the piece of paper that the male of their household picks. They all have fear and anticipation as their loved one goes up to draw. After Tessie finds out that her family is the one to get stoned, she starts to go crazy. Out of the love for her family, Tessie believes that it is a mistake. Her family could not have possibly be the one. Tessie went along with the drawing and slowly watches as her family went up to draw their piece of paper, from youngest to oldest. When they all open their pieces of paper, once again Tessie goes crazy. This time, because she was the one who picked the black dot. Once again she believes that it is a mistake (Jackson). Lottery is only one tiny way it is expressed; it can also be found in “A Wagner

Matinée”.
Clark’s Aunt Georgiana's passion for music is evident in Willa Carther’s “A Wagner Matinée.¨ A family's love for each other's passion is priceless. Georgina is a former music teacher. She has a huge passion for music and teaching others about her passion. Georgina teaches Clark how to play music at a young age, out of her love for music. Georgina taught him how to play the organ. Georgina is now older and on her way to visit her nephew Clark. When Clark learns that she is going to come visit, he tries to find a way to repay his aunt for all she has taught him. Out of the love for his aunt, he decides to buy her tickets to the symphony. When Clark presents the tickets to Georgina she is astonished. She is in shock, she never imagined such a gift of repayment. After the symphony is over Georgina is in awe. Georgina begins to cry. She is full of joy. Long after everyone has left the symphony, she sits and weeps. She sits and cries, because she loves the variety of music they played. The music reminds her of the old times as a teacher. After listening to the music, her mind was flooded with thousands of memories from the past. Reminding her just how much love she has for her passion for music. She is very impressed with her visit to the symphony with her nephew (Cather). Georgiana’s passion for music, continues to follow her through her life. Love for another family member, is also concluded in the story of “A Streetcar Named Desire”.
With love, there comes both healthy and unhealthy love in a family.

In Tennessee Williams´ “A Streetcar Named Desire,¨ both of types of love, unhealthy and healthy, are present. One form of love found in the story, is the love story between Mitch and Blanche. In the past, Blanche has had many struggles with love. Love means so many different things to Blanche. She was raised in a family around a father and an uncle who paid women for love. Growing up around men loving women the way her father and uncle did, it changed the way she viewed love. Earlier in her life she struggled with true love. Blanche had some rough patches in her life. As a young adult, Blanche got into prostitution. She did not see much wrong with it, since it was what she grew up around. That type of unhealthy love was just so natural for her. When Blanche met Mitch, she tried to have a healthy relationship with Mitch. Blanche actually saw something between the two of them. Seeing such positive things for their future, Blanche is taking things slow, because she believes that he could change her unhealthy lifestyle. The two of them both felt that there was something between them, until Stanley got involved. After Stan found out Mitch liked Blanche, he went around digging up negative things about Blanche that had happened in the past. Stan thought that he was being a good friend by doing this without Mitch knowing. Stanley was only using his and Blanches unhealthy relationship to get back at her. After Stan

tells Mitch about all of the bad things that happened in her past, he then tells Stella what he did. Stella is extremely upset and frustrated with Stanley. Stella knows how much her sister loved Mitch. Stella knows just how much Blanche wants to change her unhealthy relationship habits. Blanche believes that one day she will marry Mitch. Little did Blanche know that her unhealthy relationship with Stan would ruin the rest of her life. After Mitch was informed about her past, he wants nothing to do with Blanche. Stan and Stella also have a very strange love relationship. He is very mad when he finds out that Blanche will be staying with them. Stan treats Blanche terribly, only because she is interfering with Stella and his love life. Stan is extremely cruel towards Blanche. Stan has absolutely no respect for Blanche. Stella knowa what all Blanche has been through, so she tells Stan to be nice to her and to compliment her. Complimenting Blanche is a extremely difficult thing for Stan to do. The entire time Blanche is staying with them, Blanche and Stan have an extremely unhealthy relationship. Near the end of Blanche's normalcy, Stella is very upset with the fact that her sister was being taken to the psych ward. Seeing her go, kills Stella on the inside. Stella knows this is not the sister she once knew. She does not want them to take her away, for she believes it is the wrong thing to do to her sister (Williams). People do not always expect to get into unhealthy relationships, but for some people they can not help it. In Thornton Wilder’s, “Our Town”, unhealthy relationships can not be found, but many healthy ones can.
Time with loved ones is short. In Thornton Wilder’s, “Our Town”, it takes Emily passing, before she realizes just how precious time really is with loved ones. In the end of the story after Emily passes, she realizes that time has gone by so quickly with her and her loved ones. Emily is given the apportunity to go back in time and watch her favorite day. Many of the other deceased people tell her not to do it, but she insists. For her favorite day, she choses to go back to her twelfth birthday. As Emily sits and watches back, she is saddened by how much she missed that day. Watching back on this day, Emily recognizes just how young her mother looks. That is one of the things that she missed on the day of her twelfth birthday. Seeing her mother so young dampened her feelings, that is when she realized that the others were right about not watching back on that day. She is saddened because she feels as if she missed out on loving her mother completely while she was still alive. Love is also shown in Thornton Wilder’s, “Our Town”, in the the middle part of the story. George’s mother is highly upset about the idea of George getting married. George’s mother is worked up because she thinks that he is not old enough to be out on his own just yet. She is worried that Emily is not going to be able to love him like she does. She believes that he is not ready to take care of Emily to the best of his ability. To George and Emily, none of this really matters to them. It is for their love for one another that is much greater than the worries of their parents. George and Emily’s love story is present throughout the whole story. Emily’s love for George starts at a young age. The same for George with Emily. The two of them both used homework as an excuse to talk to each other. They loved each other for so long without the other knowing, having their parents doubt them, only encourages them more. As the two of them get older they begin to fall in love. Soon after, Emily tells George how she really feels about him. Emily tells him what is stopping her from liking him. She informs George that he is big headed and full of himself. After she tells George that, he wants to make a change in himself, because he really likes her too. Emily feels terrible for saying all that she did about him, but it does not bother George, because he knows it is the truth. From that moment on, the rest was history (Wilder). Time with loved ones is precious, slow down and enjoy the moment. In Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible”, some unthinkable actions are taken for loved ones.
People do some pretty deranged actions out of love. In Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible”, there once is some love between John and Abigail. John commits adultery with Abby. After all of that happens, John wants nothing to do with Abby. Abigail is certain that there is something between them, causing her to accuse many people of witchcraft. John’s wife suspects Johns unhealthy actions, so she questions him about it. John regrettes all that he did with Abby, so he is honest with his wife whenever she asks him. He wants absolutely nothing else to do with Abby, but she believes that they are in love. Out of her love for John, she goes around accusing many innocent people of witchery, in hopes of getting John for herself. Little does she know that John knows he made a mistake, and wants nothing to do with her. Abby wants to be with John so badly that she goes out in the woods and has a ritual with the other girls. During the ritual she drinks blood, believing that this will curse John’s wife Elizabeth. While the girls are out in the woods, Reverend Parris sees the girls dancing naked. Reverend Parris is a man who cares about his reputation very much. Parris is questioned about Abigail’s actions in the woods, but he does not have much to say. He is very ashamed of her actions, he does not want what she did in the woods to get out in public. Months later, there is a court date for John. He is questioned on the stand along with many others. While John is on stand, he is questioned about his love affair with Abigail. He tells them the whole truth about what happened between the two of them. His word is not enough for the judges though. They insist on bringing in Elizabeth, to question her about it. When the judges question Elizabeth about the affair, she lies about what happened. Out of her love for John, Elizabeth goes against everything in the Puritan religion, and lies for her husband. By Elizabeth lying for John, he gets out of the hanging. For Elizabeth, she is the one who ends up in prison (Miller). It is amazing what loved ones will go out of their way to do for each other.
Love can be found so easily in life. There was a study taken to prove that love can be found almost anywhere. The first study was “Are you now or have you ever been in love?”, close to eighty-four and a half percent of people who answered yes, their outcome was a relationship, and around five and a quarter percent, answered no (Braxton-Davis 5). Another one of the studies was one between personality and attraction. “Roughly, 79% of students chose personality over both physical and career/achievement” (Braxton-Davis 5). The best personality characteristic was said to be fun. Another key thing in love is power. Power is believed to be a problem in some relationships. Some believe that power shown in relationships blocks intimacy. In a relationship, there needs to be equality. Until there is equality, there will be problems in a relationship. A way to fix one having more power than the other would be a balance of power. With a balance of power, each partner will be in charge of certain important things, while the other is doing the same for some other important things (Marano). These examples are just a fraction of the way that love is expressed throughout literature. All of these stories also prove that the theme of love, is the most important theme in Literature. Love can be found everywhere you look. Love is a small word with an enormous meaning.