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Comparing and Contrasting the Rocking Horse Winner and The Lottery Fiction Essay Grace Unachukwu Liberty University Online Academy

Comparing and Contrasting the Rocking Horse Winner and The Lottery Both D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" explore the complex interplay of luck, fate, and societal expectations through the lens of symbolism, irony, and characterization. While both narratives share a tragic conclusion and a common thematic core, their approaches to conveying these themes differ significantly. Symbols and Themes In both stories, luck and fate are explored through symbols and themes, along with societal norms. “The Lottery” luck is considered arbitrary and cruel in both stories. The lottery, a central symbol in the story, embodies the arbitrary cruelty of fate and the insidious societal expectation to adhere to tradition, even when it inflicts suffering. In the story, it seems ok, just until Mrs. Hutchinson is picked. Then she begins to deem it unfair. “I tell you it wasn’t fair. “You didn’t give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that” (Jackson, S., P.6, 2018). Again, the town follows tradition and chooses Mrs. Hutchinson as the winner. Meanwhile, the rocking horse is used as a symbol of luck in The Rocking Horse Winner. Since Paul won every time he had the rocking horse, it was believed to bring him luck. The intricate use of symbolism in both stories enriches our understanding of their thematic core and provides profound insights into the authors' perspectives. Use of Irony Both authors use irony to deepen their themes, however they each use them differently

Comparing and Contrasting the Rocking Horse Winner and The Lottery throughout the stories. Irony is used directly in the title of The Lottery. If a reader is unfamiliar with the story, they may assume that “The Lottery” will end happily. Although “The Lottery” title might seem like a prize, it is really what causes Mrs. Hutchinson to be stoned to death by her own community and family. “A stone hit her on the side of the head” (Jackson, S., P. 8, 2018). Another use of irony in this story is the fact that winter is often associated with death. So for this event of brutal murder to happen in summer is pretty ironic. Another ironic thing in the story is the contrast between the characters and their sudden violent outbursts. In the story, the villagers treat each other with kindness and respect until they are all turning on Tessie and stoning her to death. With the story “The Rocking Horse Winner” the irony is written throughout the story. One of the main ones is that no matter how much success Paul brings in, it has the opposite effect on his mother. Paul believes that the money he has won from betting will make his mother happy and earn him her love and affection. However, no matter how much he wins, it’s never enough for her. And because of that greed, she loses her son. Paul’s mother always thought that she would become wealthy and rise in society as a result of Paul's rocking horse. And she did for a bit. But now she will have the exact opposite impact because of her unbearable selfishness and avarice. Her selfishness is the reason that Paul died so early, Finally, both protagonists were subjected to society's expectations when discussing the author's characterization. However,the responses that they had towards the expectation were different. In “The Lottery” Mrs. Hutchinson was willing to go along with whatever was said by tradition until it was her turn. Once it was her turn all of a sudden it wasn’t fair. “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right”

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