Comparison of “The Lottery” and “Everyday Use” I am comparing these two short stories because how different they are and yet some of the similarities they have. The difference is “Everyday Use” is a story based on women as dominating character and in “The Lottery” the men are the dominating character. The stories are different years but they both are about traditions and how they remembered how they came about. The similarities are their beliefs, culture, and rituals. The subject of the story is about what people think of the term “everyday use” and the differences around them mainly concerning the quilts. For Dee the quilts represent something to show off while Maggie wants to use them for warmth. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” “She’d …show more content…
probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use" (385).The issue of everyday use also talks about race, and education. The story shows how Dee thinks how the quilts should be compared how her sister mother thinks they should be used. The question one might ask is why does Maggie deserve all of the quilts? I personally think that Maggie would appreciate them more that Dee because Maggie believes in the heritage how they were made where as Dee sees them as folk art to hang on her wall, plus Dee would never use the quilts like Maggie would.
Dee cares only about herself. After all, the story is about everyday use. The mother wants the quilts to be used. Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts.”(385) Dee denies her real heritage while Maggie embraces her heritage and the remembrance of her ancestors. Dee changed her name to Wangero because she did not want to be associated with her aunt. Her mother wants to know why Dee changed her name to Wangero and her reply was, “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” …show more content…
(382) The Lottery “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson when the reader starts to read the story they think as of perfect small village they envision with well-mannered small town folks gathering in the town square with green grass and flowers.
From this early point in the plot of “The Lottery” the reader thinks that this is a happy story that someone is about to win a great prize. This quote for instance “The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teenage club, and the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities”. (101)This makes the reader think that a town filled with fun and joyous celebrations. Then after getting further into the story it takes a terrifying twist. We as the readers learn what the lottery really is with a dark ending. There are three most dominant men who have power over the town, politically and economically, who happens manage the lottery. Mr. Summers had a coal business; Mr. Graves was the postmaster, and Mr. Martin had the grocery store. (101-102) Mr. Summers is the officially sworn in as the lottery administrator by Mr. Graves. (102) Mr. Graves along with Mr. Summers make up the lottery slips the night before the lottery. (102) And Mr. Martin who holds the lottery box while the slips of paper are being stirred.
(101) My question here is should we consider this murder? In society today we might think of it as murder but in the story it was a tradition they did every year. The reader keeps reading to find out that what they won at the lottery was being stoned to death. There was no talk about which person would be stoned it could have even been a child. The “winner” of the lottery is Tessie; because she had drawn the slip of paper that had the large black dot made from the coal imprint. The town joins together and deliberately kills someone. That sounds like murder to me. In conclusion Alice Walker wrote often of her distaste for the African-American who was only interested in his blackness and not in his country now. She believed that in order to make America better the black man must build here first and along with his interest in his African heritage. Walker wanted both aspects but not separate as many were promoting in that time period. I think Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery” because to bring up the domination of women. In the story it constantly points out women are inferior. The boys or men draw the slips of paper out of the box, the boys gather the stones, while the women stood and the girls stood aside talking between themselves. I think the narrator was letting her readers know she wanted the narrator wanted the circumstances to stop that is why she had wrote, Tessie said "this is wrong". Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." (106) Old Man Warner represents Society, the purpose which is condoned by the village as normal and even virtuous. Tessie represents Man, the individual who fights against norms but, in this case, is destroyed by them.
One main similarity between the story The Lottery and the Button Button is that a spouse dies in both stories. It the story The Lottery Tessie dies which she is married to Joe. In the story Button Button Mr. Author Lewis dies which was married to Mrs. Author Lewis. In the story The Lottery Tessie got the black dot on her paper so she got stones thrown at her until she died. In the story Button Button Mr. Author dies because Mrs. Author Lewis pushes a button that when you press the button it kills someone you don’t know. If you do press the button, you get $50,000 but it kills someone that you don’t know. You do not have to go and see that person die or anything but karma came back and it killed her husband.
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.
Symbols are displayed in both stories; the quilts in “Everyday Use” symbolize the memories of Mama’s family. The quilts are made of pieces of old clothing from Mama’s family. Each piece of the quilt represents that person and who they were. They are passed on to future generations along with stories of the ancestors’ past. The quilts represent pride of their ancestors’ struggles, where they came from and the fight to preserve their individuality. Unlike Dee, Mama and Maggie acknowledge their heritage from memories of their family members. Dee bases her heritage off ...
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
Though there are some noticeable differences between Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, however the similarities in the two stories are clear. The themes of both short stories are centered on tradition and the sacrifice of one individual for the good all. In the “The Lottery” someone is stoned to death in order for the village to be prosper. While in the “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the cities happiness solely depends on the suffering of a child whom has done nothing wrong. The point that both authors are trying to convey to the audience is; at what point do we as a society begin to question a way of doing things, question a tradition that has no real truth or reason behind
The story “The Lottery” and “The Landlady” are alike because both of these story include violence. For example in the story “The Landlady” it states “Left?” she said, arching her brows. “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here. Mr Temple is also here. They’re on the third floor, both of them together.” The landlady is implying that both of the former visitors never left they were on the third floor. This makes us assume that maybe the landlady did something to them like a cause of violence because they had been reported missing for two years and then she said they never left “The Bell and Dragon” hotel.
The quilts were pieced together by Mama, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee symbolizing a long line of relatives. The quilts made from scraps of dresses worn by Grandma Dee, Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts, and Great Grandpa Ezra’s Civil War uniform represented the family heritage and values, and had been promised to Mama to Maggie when she married. However, Dee does not understand the love put into the making of the quilts, neither does she understand the significance of the quilts as part of her family heritage. It is evident she does not understand the significance of the quilt, having been offered one when went away to college declaring them “as old-fashioned” and “out of style”. She does not care about the value of the quilts to her family, rather she sees it as a work of art, valuable as an African heritage but not as a family heirloom. She wants the quilts because they are handmade, not stitched with around the borders. She tells Mama, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use… But, they’re priceless!.. Maggie would put them on her the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” (317). The quilt signifies the family pride and history, which is important to Mama. She makes the decision to give the quilt to Maggie who will appreciate it more than Dee, to whom she says, “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
The main objects of topic throughout the story are the quilts that symbolize the African American Woman’s history. Susan Farrell, a critic of many short stories, describes the everyday lives of African American Women by saying “weaving and sewing has often been mandatory labor, women have historically endowed their work with special meanings and significance” and have now embraced this as a part of their culture. The two quilts that Dee wanted “had been pieced together by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me [Mother] had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them” (par. 55) showing that these quilts were more valuable as memories than they were just blankets. The fabrics in the quilts “were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the piece of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (par. 55) putting forth more evidence that these are not just scraps, but have become pieces of family history. The q...
The Hunger Games and “The Lottery” are similar in regards to symbolism and tradition although they differ in characters. Both of
In “The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, tone and symbolism are equally important elements in comprehending this eerie short story. This dark tale takes place in a small town of about 300 people during the summer. The writer begins by painting a picture of children playing, women gossiping, and men making small-talk of home and finances, putting the reader at ease with a tone of normality. The people of the town coalesce before the lottery conductor, named Mr. Summers, appears to begin the annual town ritual of drawing from a box which will result in the killing of one townsperson by stone throwing. It isn’t until the fateful conclusion when the reader comes to realize there is nothing normal about the
The theme in “The Lottery” is violence and cruelty. Violence and cruelty is a major theme because there is a lot of violence and cruelty in the world. The Lottery has been read as addressing such issues as the public's fascination with salacious and scandalizing journalism, McCarthyism, and the complicity of the general public in the victimization of minority groups, epitomized by the Holocaust of World War II. The Holocaust was very cruel and violent cause other people didn’t like certain people so they just kill them and their children and still now we have violence and cruelty with wars and people that hate each other.
When Dee first arrives home from college in Augusta, Georgia she steps out of the car with, “A dress so loud it hurts my eyes… Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arms up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits,” (Walker 463). The loud dress and the gold jewelry shows that Dee was embracing her extended heritage. This was very popular with the Malcom X movement Back to Africa. Dee even went so far as to change her name to “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo,” because she, “couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me,” (Walker 464). For Dee to change the name that was given to her shows that she is truly ashamed of her immediate heritage. She shows that she not only struggles with the external conflict with Mama, but Dee also struggle with an internal conflict. She has a relationship with a Muslim named Asalamalakim who is also part of the Back to Africa movement. While Dee and Asalamalakim are visiting Dee’s family he and Dee eat dinner with Mama and Maggie. Asalamalakim is fully devoted to his religion and culture by not eating anything because he didn’t like collards and refused to eat pork because his religion teaches that pork is unclean. Dee, on the other hand, took part of the dinner and all the components in the meal. She was embracing her immediate heritage, yet the
The story The Lottery starts off with a setting of a town gathering. In the middle of the town square, all the families come together for a black box which is filled of paper for each family head. The one family that is pick has to re-pick a sheet of paper. In this story, it is the Hutchison family. Mrs. Hutchison was choose and to be choose is to have death upon you by friends and family. In the story, Shirley Jackson protracted one of life’s most powerful weapon into her story, peer pressure. Tradition plays strong role in the lottery; the peer pressure is the backbone for the lottery. It has been done for decades and decades. “There’s always been a lottery,” stated Old Man Warner in the story. When you have peer pressure, you have fear right that motives the town people. "Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs. Adams said. "N...
What thoughts come to mind when you think of "The Lottery?" Positive thoughts including money, a new home, excitement, and happiness are all associated with the lottery in most cases. However, this is not the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story, "The Lottery." Here, the characters in the story are not gambling for money, instead they are gambling for their life. A shock that surprises the reader as she unveils this horrifying tradition in the village on this beautiful summer day. This gamble for their life is a result of tradition, a tradition that is cruel and inhumane, yet upheld in this town. Shirley Jackson provides the reader’s with a graphic description of violence, cruelty, and inhumane treatment which leads to the unexpected meaning of "The Lottery." Born in San Francisco, Jackson began writing early in her life. She won a poetry prize at age twelve and continued writing through high school. In 1937 she entered Syracuse University, where she published stories in the student literary magazine. After marriage to Stanley Edgar Hyman, a notable literary critic, she continued to write. Her first national publication “My Life with R.H. Macy” was published in The New Republic in 1941but her best-known work is “The Lottery.”(Lit Links or Reagan). Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to portray a story with rising action that surprises the reader with the unexpected odd ritual in the village. While one would expect “The Lottery” to be a positive event, the reader’s are surprised with a ritual that has been around for seventy-seven years , demonstrating how unwilling people are to make changes in their everyday life despite the unjust and cruel treatment that is associated with this tradi...
The story focus on the way Dee sees the differences between her life and the lives of her mother and sister. Dee tells her mother and Maggie that they do not understand their "heritage," because they plan to put "priceless" heirloom quilts to "everyday use. " The story makes clear that Dee is equally confused about the nature of her inheritance both from her immediate family and from the larger black tradition. The matter of Dee's name provides a good example of this confusion.