Unfair Rights and Scarring Sacrifices
Several generations have gone through some type of an unfair law that they had to obey, for example, in past generations African Americans were enslaved, but more presently the lack of rights the LGBT members have with marriage. This can relate to the stories “Antigone” and “The Lottery” because the characters in each story went through unfair tragedies. The laws in each of these stories are different, but actually very similar as shown by the end result. In the story “Antigone” a loyal sister is demanded to be put to death for the burial of her beloved brother. A law was made against her brother Polynice who had died battling against his very own brother and country. Antigone knew the consequences of disregarding the law, but since she was his sister she did not want to obey the law. She then proceeded to bury her brother anyways to show her loyalty and how much she loved him. Along with the law in “Antigone” being unfair, the character Tessie in the story “The Lottery” also found that it was unfair when her family ended up having the piece of paper with the black dot. Tessie had forgotten about the town lottery so she ended up being late. She claimed that her husband Bill “did not have enough time to select a piece of paper”. When the Hutchinson family, then
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In “Antigone” the deaths were chain reaction. Antigone, Haemon, and Eurydice all took their lives on their own free will. Antigone did not want to be killed on King Creon’s order so she hung herself. Once Haemon saw his love, Antigone was dead, he then stabbed himself because he did not want to live life without her. After Haemon’s death, Eurydice his mother had cut her throat. In a completely opposite scene in “The Lottery” Tessie does not have any other choice but death. Not only does Tessie not have a choice, but she is killed in a major inhumane way such as being stoned to
A common phrase used in courts is that someone is “innocent until proven guilty.” Through the plot’s of “The Lottery” and The Crucible, this idea of people being innocent until guilty is shown, however, the part of this phrase about proving that guilt is conveniently left out. Of course, both stories took place in a time in which the villagers felt no need for there to be any kind of trial or reasoning for someone’s death. Rather, the persecutions that occured in these stories took place to ensure that barbaric tendencies did not spread among the people within their villages. This idea of keeping people from being barbaric or evil enforces the idea that perhaps people truly think that the people who choose the marked paper are really deserving
People within communities have a large responsibility to one another. Sometimes, however, that responsibility and respect seem to fade, as in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson, and “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe. Both of these stories describe settings in which communities fell apart either briefly or all together.
In both plays, the main characters break the laws for justifiable reasons. In Antigone, Antigone's dead brother, Polynices, is considered a traitor and King Creon "forbids anyone to bury him, mourn him" (Sophocles 88). She knows that all men deserve a proper burial and to not do so will be "an outrage sacred to the gods!" (Sophocles 95). Therefore, she "raise[s] a mound for him [Polynices]" (Sophocles 95) so that her city will not have to "face the retribution of the gods" (Sophocles512). She violates King Creon's decree to appease her gods. In Trifles, Mrs. Hale ...
Compare and Contrast! Well, you use it on a daily right? The stories “The Lottery” and “The Landlady” are two stories that you can compare and contrast. Some examples of comparisons are that both of the stories use violence, and that they both end with a plot twist no one was expecting. One example of a contrast in both of these stories is that they use their imagery differently. How are these stories alike and how are they different?
Tessie Hutchinson plays a significant role by displaying hypocrisy and human weakness.She protest against the lottery when her family is endangered, she complains ironically and shouted to Mr. Summers, “you did not give him enough time to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (pg. 247). Her statement about the fairness of the lottery is ironic because until her family was selected, she does not seem to believe that the lottery is unfair.
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
She showed up late to the lottery which makes it seem like it is not important to her, she later shows she doesn’t take it seriously when she shoves her husband and tells him not to be nervous when selecting his card from the box. After everybody opens their card and it is revealed that her husband has open the one with the black dot, Tessie reacts in a very different way than before. “Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn 't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn 't fair!"” ( Jackson) It now seems as if the lottery is a huge deal and she doesn’t want anything to do with the results of having her husband draw the card with the black dot. Tessie pushing her husband and her yelling about her husband being selected can be seen as Tessie disobeying the social order that is in the village. She does this by disrespecting her husband and then questioning the decision of Mr. Summers. (Capitalist Society in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Comparative Literature) It is finally proven that she finds the lottery a big deal when she is speechless once the rest of her family show that they don’t have the black dot on their card during the drawing for the
Although people can fear an outcome of telling the truth or standing up for what they believe is right, being a bystander in a poor situation doesn’t exempt someone from innocence. Whether it involves a murder or telling the truth, if someone knows it is wrong and does nothing to take part in what’s going on they are no better than the ones involved in the conflict. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, both stories involve bystanders. A bystander is not innocent when they do nothing about the problem going on around them.
There are many different points of view about human behaviors. Through specific characters mentioned in Fahrenheit 451, “A Very Old Man Enormous Wings”, and “The Lottery”, individual attitudes are exaggerated to the point that their evil motivations behind their behaviors are obvious. Everyday humans attempt to attach the connotation of good to humanity, but it’s just because humans want to look past the fact that we are realistically not good. It is very difficult for us to reflect on our own behaviors. Even though people try to avoid admitting it, we always try to be the best in whatever we do. We naturally make our own survivals the best we can make it. Harming others knowingly and enjoying it is a hallmark of being evil. Good is not only
In an agriculture-dominant village, the lottery is practiced as the annual tradition. The “fortunate” lottery winner will be stoned to death by the town after a few rounds of drawing lots. Such flabbergasted ritual is seen as a norm in that village and the villagers even feel excited over this cruel occasion due to the mob psychology of people. The villagers abandon their rationale in demonstrating violence towards the innocent “winner”. When Tessie draws the winner piece, everyone in the village straight up turns on her with stones and pebbles including Mrs. Delacroix, her
When asked if there was anyone else in the household, Tessie claims, “There’s Don and Eva... Make them take their chance” (Jackson 5). By volunteering her daughters, that are married and thus draw with their one families, Tessie shows that she would rather have a family member be stoned to death than herself. She is also set out as a hypocrite because she does not complain when any other family is picking slips (if another family had picked the slip she would have stoned someone else to death), she only questions the lottery when her family is the one that has to choose. She cried out multiple times, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson 8), questioning the fairness of the tradition after she is the one chosen to be stoned to death. Tessie finally sees outside of the bubble that everyone in the village is in. It is here that we see that violence is acceptable until it becomes
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.
Death can come in many ways. It can be sudden, or over a strenuous period of time. It can seem random, but sometimes is planned and thought out. There are just about as many ways to deal with death, as there are ways to die. While both The lottery and The Story of an Hour explore the theme of death and grief, The lottery tells a tale of the sacrificial death for a community (necessary, no grief) while The Story of an Hour depicts the natural death of a loved one (grief, but, later, revelation) and how we eventually come to terms with it.
“The lottery” and “first they came” both have the same theme of killing people whether its tradition or just killing people in general you’re still following the same theme however the two story’s use different text structures to convey the message to the reader.