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Character analysis essay on the lottery
Character analysis in the lottery
Character analysis essay on the lottery
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While reading the stories “The Lottery” and “The Rocking Horse Winner”, the first thing that jumps out is the sense of family. In “The Lottery”, the families are all gathering in the town square and everyone must be accounted for. In which, showing a sort of importance to families. In “The Rocking Horse Winner”, the author introduces a woman her married and had children however, not out of love. Which leads us to believe family is not of importance. Yet, both writers use theme, characterization, and conflict to show how personal choices affect family relationships.
Characterization is shown in many ways throughout both stories. In “The Lottery”, “the very small children rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters.”
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As everyone is gathering in the square the fact that the siblings cling together shows that it is important for them to stay with family members. They flow into the town square first kids, then men, finally the women. Even though they all talk among their groups for a minute after everyone has filled the square the families group together. From this we can characterize that the relationship of a family is important to this town. However, in “The Rocking Horse Winner” the woman who is described as “beautiful” and “with all the advantage, yet she had no luck” ends up marrying “for love, and the love turned to dust” (Lawrernce 1). In which sense we see that there is not a strong family relationship here. The woman never loved her children even though everyone thought so. The family is characterized as living a life in style and feeling superior to others but somehow they did not have enough money for the life they were living. This shows that to the riches and wealth are worth more than love of family. However, when faced with conflict things begin to change.
In “The Lottery”, conflict begins as the head of the family draws out their card from the lottery. When it is revealed which family has received the black dot it is no longer the family as one instead, each family member is on their own. Then from there each family member selects a card hoping to not be selected which, tells us that they would rather someone else in the family have the black dot. When it is revealed who has the black dot the family turns against them and stones them to death with the help of the town. Showing us that the conflict of the story is the lottery and that when facing the conflict, the relationship of the family no longer matters. In contrary in “The Rocking Horse Winner” when faced with conflict the family begins to show love for each other. After Paul gets tired of hearing the house whisper “There must be more money!” (Lawrence 5) he confronts his mother asking how his uncle has money and his father does not. She goes on to tell him that it is all about “luck” which his father does not have and neither does she because she married him. So Paul goes in search of “luck” so that his mother may have money which shows us he cares about his family. When the search for “luck” starts to affect the health of Paul the mother begins to feel anxious and scared all the time. Showing us that while facing this conflict the mother does begin to feel love towards her son. When Paul finally goes too far in
the search for “luck” the mother grieves the loss of her son and shows her love for their family relationship. The conflict of “The Rocking Horse Winner” is Paul’s search of “luck” or more literally him riding his rocking horse to complete exhaustion in which the characters begin to show love for one another and the importance of family. Through characterization and conflict, it is easy to see the theme of the two works is family relationships. Both stories show an importance and an unimportance of family relationships but the order in which they are shown tell the most about the theme. When reading “The Lottery” you begin with this innocent scene of the families gathering in the town square but it takes a very sudden twist. In this case the true theme is that upholding traditions is more important than family. Which is proven by the fact that they do not know much about the history of the lottery and there is no one still around to remember how it started yet it matters more to the town than family. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” it begins by talking about a woman who does not love her children instead craves money. However, by the end of the story she grieves the loss of her son who was trying to make her happy with money. Which shows that in “The Rocking Horse Winner” the theme is that family is more important than wealth. In modern day I feel we lose sight of the importance of family. While reading these stories I realized that you can fake happiness in a relationship but sooner or later it is going to show. In contrary if love is in your heart it may not always show but in times of need it is there. “Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). If not sincere it will surely show and we no longer live a life that God has intended.
“The Lottery” is a satire that is meant to shock and provoke readers with the prospect that societal contentment and tradition can evoke the emersion of illogical and harmful actions. The author, Shirley Jackson, understands that the proper use of symbolism and character archetypes is followed by a more impactful story. “The Lottery” opens with children who are out of school for summer break “[on a clear and sunny… day.” (Jackson, 1948, p. 221). Such an innocuous, familiar scene, might elicit from the reader nostalgic, whimsical memories of childhood play. Appropriately, the children in this story represent the innocent, susceptible future generation of the town. They do not seem to fully fathom the severity of the lottery or the abhorrent nature of the violence associated with the town’s traditions. For this reason, the reader most likely develops an expectation that this story will be a pleasant and optimistic one that takes place on a beautiful sunny day and involves the laughter and tomfoolery of young happy kids.
The setting in the stories The Lottery and The Rocking-Horse Winner create an atmosphere where the readers can be easily drawn in by the contrasting features of each short story. This short essay will tell of very important contrasting aspects of settings in that while both stories are different, both hold the same aspects.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson’s unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone then closes in on her and stones her to death. Tessie Hutchinson believes it is not fair because she was picked. The villagers do not know why the lottery continues to exist. All they know is that it is a tradition they are not willing to abandon. In “The Lottery,” Jackson portrays three main themes including tradition, treason, and violence.
In comparing and contrasting the short stories “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker and “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, tradition is carried on throughout the generations. Symbols are often used in these short stories to convey these messages of tradition and heritage. Rebellious characters are also found in both of the stories, trying to alter traditions to meet their own personal expectations. However, in contrast “The Lottery” is a much more barbaric story that does not reveal the cruelty until the end of the story. The story involves an entire village of families following a tradition. “Everyday Use” is not as tragic, it deals with a conflict within a single family unit.
Luck and love have always been two very important and contradicting themes in many stories. Children and adults would go above and beyond to receive their parent’s affection and approval even to the point of death and isolation. At times this creates a dysfunctional aspect in the family’s lives. “A Rose for Emily” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” have very similar symbol meanings and themes explaining the dysfunctional family, love and luck.
The Theme Comparisons between The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K .
The themes of “The Lottery and “The Tell-Tale Heart” have its similarities but minor differences. The stylistic techniques the authors use in each story contribute to their themes. Irony and symbolism help support the 2 different themes of each story. Both stories involve death but are looked at in different ways.
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
Family relationsips are challenged in a great number of ways that become broken. Family relations are challenged in the two stories. The Lottery and the Crash. The families in both stories are close up until a certain point. The lottery is a very intense story as the Lottery isnt actually what a may seem, you dont actually win a lottery in a good way. Family gets picked and one of the members in the family gets stoned to death as they pick a letter with a black dot. In the crash racism effects the family relations
In D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, Paul is searching for an identity and love. Paul’s mother was incapable of love; “when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard.” Paul’s mother desires materialistic possessions and excludes priceless items such as love. Paul’s mother and father were incapable of maintaining the social position they had to uphold with the amount of money they made. The house was always high strung and believed that there was always a need for more money. The house became haunted by the unspoken phrase, “There must be more money!” Paul was outraged when he confronted his mother about the family’s lack of wealth, and she rejected his statement that he is lucky. After this scene, Paul was easily influenced that he would be able to reach this place of luck and finally satisfy his mother. Her desires for more money and luck are never satisfied, and as a result, lead to tragic consequences when love and money are confused in Paul’s mind. Paul’s heartbreaking attempt to win his mother’s love inevitably leads to his own death.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the author is able to entertain and enlighten the readers. The interesting and profound topic of the story is partly the reason for drawing the readers in; however, the clever characterization of Tessie and the anonymous setting help to make the story more relatable as well as force the readers to feel sympathy for the characters. Although a story about a town devouring a member of its community is horrifying, there is a large meaning. Jackson effectively uses “The Lottery” to warn the readers of the dangers of the group. Shirley Jackson describes the characters in “The Lottery” in a way that readers can relate to each of them in some way, yet she makes one character stand out from the start of the story.
In the movie version of “The Lottery,” the director chose not to emphasize the beauty of the day the lottery was held with his set or the comfortable nature of the people attending it. This dulled the effect of the ending, but it made the viewer more suspicious and uncomfortable through the movie. The director’s choice to make Mr. Summers a serious character instead of the “round faced, jovial man” in the text served to cause suspense to creep into the story but sacrificing the atmosphere created by his overly happy attitude. In the movie, the costumes of the characters were familiar and normal, which made their behavior more disconcerting. More changes from the short story occurred as the children were repeatedly shown gathering rocks. The movie adaptation turned it into a more significant event than Jackson, causing an ominous feeling in the viewer.
In conclusion, "The Rocking-Horse Winner," written by D. H. Lawrence is a story about the family and the feelings of shame that we acquire from our parents that could have disastrous consequences for the whole family. We saw the effects of a mother's obsession with money, a son's plan to please his mother, and the prices the family paid for their obsession with money.
Shirley Jackson and Kate Chopin are using a suspenseful tone in both of their stories to reveal their feeling about the story. Jackson is emphasizing on the characteristics of the villagers when they came to the lottery, were “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather
As a person, we are often blinded by anything that sparkles to our eye, anything that catches our whimsical desires, and anything that makes our life easier. We often tend to cling onto such materialistic things that in the end, realistically matter nothing compared to the blessings given to us. In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, it speaks about how happiness cannot be achieved with all the shallow tangible things in life, but the littlest things that are closest to our heart. The story starts with a description of an almost perfect woman who is later revealed as the main character Paul’s mother whose only flaw is the absence of her luck.