Professor Candia
English 102
Short
Story
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is
a very interesting story, especially because she misleads her readers in
thinking that a lottery is suppose to result positively, but actually it was
written in a negative perspective. As the reader, we can imagine from the title
that someone is the chosen one in receiving the award; however, Shirley writes
the story from a positive setting to a negative setting. She writes this story from the third person objective leaving us clueless about the character’s
feelings. Lastly, she makes the slightest change of tone throughout her story.
The narrator of "The
Lottery" is extremely detached from the story. It does not allow us as
readers to identify the characters' feelings or thoughts. The narrator constantly
mentions the process of the lottery, “The people of…” (Jackson 258), which further leads us to the
shocking ending. Our only indications of “The Lottery” are that villagers
acting in such nervousness, rather than from their thoughts. Using “Bartleby
the Scrivener” by Herman Melville as a contrast, its point of view is from a first person objective. Melville's choice
of narrator is from the lawyer point of view allowing us to get close to
Bartleby, but still needing to identify him. As we continue to read, we can
quickly identify the feelings of the narrator as we also identify that Bartleby
is struck with an innate and incurable disorder, “suffering from perplexity and
distress of mind” (Melville 15) leading to a tragic ending.
The setting of “The Lottery” starts
off in a temporary setting with the
narrator describing a typical sunny day where the children are off from school,
how flowers give off their scent, and nevertheless, “the grass was richly
green.” (Jackson
258). As the author brings a new setting of the villagers gathering for the
lottery and piling up pebbles to as big as rocks, we shortly can feel that this
is no longer a joyful story, but instead a uprising rage with sorrow. However,
in “Bartleby”, the author gives us a strong understanding of where the story
takes place in a law office on Wall Street in New York during the mid-19th
century. Melville writes about a character that is deeply in trouble and faces
to reject all help from his surroundings rather than Mrs. Hutchinson in “The
Lottery” who receives no help of whatsoever.
As readers, we go from reading about
a small village on a nice sunny summer day to witnessing the villagers
executing a member of their own without the lightest change in tone of the author in “The Lottery”. A
short story that contradicts itself to this kind of tone would be “Bartleby the
Scrivener.” For this specific story, the author changes the narrator’s tone as
he is telling the story as first person objective. Throughout the story, we
strongly identify with the narrator and see Bartleby feeling pathetic and a
little frightening.
Furthermore, besides contrasting the
setting, point of view, and tone of “The Lottery” and “Bartleby”, we can
clearly conclude that both authors characterize their character in two very
different ways. Jackson
leaves us with no information except about the lottery to something so dreadful
throughout the ending, while Melville, who provides us with detailed
information about his characters.
Works Cited
Kennedy, X.J, and Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
Fourth Edition. Boston, Columbus, Indianapolis, New York, San
Francisco, Upper Saddle River, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Dubai,
London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Montreal, Toronto,
Delhi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore,
Taipei, Tokyo: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Melville, Herman. Bartleby and Benito Cereno. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1990. Print.
Poetry Essay
Emily Dickson, a poet from the 1800s usually writes her
works about death. Although, she wrote many poems, only eighteen were
published. Poems such as “Because I could not stop for death” were unique because
of the theme she writes with, mortality. Not knowing to write in proper English
shocked the reader even more. One would question why Dickson is doing this,
mainly to introduce her uniqueness with poetry.
Morality,
used in “Because I could not stop for Death” defines the speaker’s attitude
towards her death and what the actual day of her death was like. Dickson images
a picture of the day that doesn’t seem too far from ordinary with always having
death along her side. She shows no sign of being scared of death and seems to
accept it.
On the
other hand, she writes the symbolism. Throughout this particular poem, she uses
quite a few; as she mentions about the carriage in the first stanza, which
death and her rides towards their final passage to death. The carriage is
symbolizing the transportation to the afterlife.
Another symbolism
is the sunset. She mentions the sunset in the third stanza after mentioning
that she passed the middle of her life, labor and leisure. The sunset is
symbolizing that she have been out for a long period of time and it is getting
dark and cold. There is not much time left as to when they approach their final
designation, death.
Furthermore,
Dickson’s poetry defines morality leaving her readers in thought of, do what
you possibly can because death is always with you. There isn’t a time that you would
know what happens the next second. Basically Dickson informs us to enjoy life and
accept death as a natural stage of life.
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