Similarities Between The Lottery And Catcher In The Rye

Guilt is the feeling of responsibility for any wrongdoing. Guilt is portrayed as a theme in many American novels and short stories. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of writing that both depict guilt and show the lack of guilt in a community. In “The Lottery” the whole town gathers together in what they call the lottery. However, the lottery there is not the same as our lotteries. The lottery there determines the winner, someone who gets stoned to death and the townsfolk have no sympathy for them. In contrast, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in Catcher in the Rye, feels guilt for having privileges that others do not have. Holden says, “All the two of them were eating for breakfast was toast and coffee. That depressed me. I hate it if I'm eating bacon and eggs or something and somebody else is only eating toast and coffee” (Salinger 110).

The Catcher in the Rye has a very narcissistic protagonist in Holden. Holden lost his younger brother, Allie, to Leukemia. “My brother

Allie… He’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946” (Salinger 38). The night of Allie’s death, Holden stayed in the garage. He describes how he broke,
"all the goddam windows with [his] fist, just for the hell of it. [He] even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon [they] had that summer, but [his] hand was already broken and everything by the time, and [he] couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, [he admits], but [he] hardly didn't even know [he] was doing it, and you didn't know Allie" (Salinger 39).
“The act may have been ‘stupid’-- which is one of his pet words to denigrate himself as well as others--but it also reflects his uncontrollable anger, at himself for wishing Allie dead and at his brother for leaving him alone and burdened with feelings of guilt” (Miller). Holden feels horrible and guilty about not being able to make it to Allie’s funeral because he was in the hospital with a broken hand. “They all came when Allie died… I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 155). “Because he was hospitalized, he was unable to attend the funeral, to witness the completion of the life process…” (Miller). In contrast to The Catcher in the Rye, “The Lottery” shows lack of guilt instead of feeling guilt.
“The Lottery” has kids and adults in the short story that are enthusiastic about the stoning.

“Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up" (Jackson). Even though some of the older adults are not in the best shape to participate they all rush to grab stones and go to the stoning. “Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said. gasping for breath. "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with you" (Jackson). Even the woman’s children were willing to join in. “The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles” (Jackson). No one in the community felt sympathy or guilt about the stoning. The only feeling they had about the lottery was joy. Unlike the lack of guilt in “The Lottery,” Of Mice and Men shows an awkward ending that leaves the reader a little

befuddled.
In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie are the two main characters. George left Lennie alone for a little while. When George comes back, he finds that Lennie had killed a lady and had run away. So, George recalls a time when he told Lennie to come to a specific spot if he ever needed a place to go. “Lennie—if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush… Hide in the brush till I come for you" (Steinbeck 15). George then shoots Lennie after he finds him, that way Curley, the man who was married to the woman Lennie killed, could not do anything to Lennie.
“George's bullet piercing Lennie's skull does not justify anything. It is totally wrong for George to do that regardless of what he thought Curley might do or what authority might do. George should have testified with Lennie saying that his mentally capacity was the reason and Lennie would have got off with some sort of minority charge. George's actions ended Lennie's life that he had left to live” (Hrvatska).
Slim, another character in Of Mice and Men, felt that George had to kill Lennie, feeling differently than Hrvatska does. “Slim said, ‘You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me’” (Steinbeck 107).
Like Holden, many other characters retract themselves from society. One of these being Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is rich and lives near his past love, Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousin and Jay’s neighbor, gets asked by Jay to try and get Daisy and Jay back together again, even though she has a husband.
“‘He wants to know,’ continued Jordan, ‘if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over.’ ‘Did I have to know all this before he could ask such a little thing.’ ‘He's afraid, he's waited so long. He thought you might be offended’” (Fitzgerald 78).
Nick is being used by Jay and should feel offended. Later on when Jay and Daisy are together and Nick is supposed to be chaperoning, Nick leaves them alone. Jay has a strong lack of guilt as he uses Nick, tries to steal Daisy away from Tom, and does not care how he does it. Also, Daisy should feel guilty for what she is doing to Tom. She knows right from wrong and she knows that she should not be having a fling with Jay. As Jay should feel guilty so should Armand for what he does in “Desiree’s Baby.”
“Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin is about a young lady who does not know what her ancestry is. Although, it comes apparent that she is a quadroon and of African American descent. Desiree marries a man named Armand and when he finds out she is of African descent he makes her leave. When he was burning her belongings he finds a letter, from his mother to his father revealing that she was part African American.
“The last thing to go was a tiny bundle of letters… But it was not Desiree’s; it was part of an old letter from his mother to his father. He read it… ‘But above all,’ she wrote, ‘night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery’” (Chopin).
Armand being a very prejudiced man would think very differently of his baby knowing that the African American came from his side of the family.
Guilt is portrayed in many more writing than just these five. Although these are some of the best writings that exemplify guilt or lack thereof. Whether or not the characters show guilt or no guilt, the theme still calls for a great story. “As you would blame others, blame yourself; as you would forgive yourself, forgive others." - Chinese Proverb.