Comparative Literature Poe & Jackson There are a number of literary elements that successful authors creatively and effectively combine so as to demonstrate their style, technique, and knowledge of writing fundamentals. In the short stories, "The Lottery" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" written by Jackson and Poe respectively, the authors depend heavily upon the settings within each story to enhance or explore elements such as mood, atmosphere, conflict, and theme. Jackson's "The Lottery" takes place in small town middle America, while Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" presumably takes place in the countryside or suburbs of the eastern seaboard of America. The authors absolutely embody the physical location of each story with the sentiments and desires of the characters within the settings, from the overall geographical location, such as a town, to specific edifices such as the actual House of Usher as well as the path into the town square where the crowd gathers for the lottery. The paper demonstrates awareness of the authors' deliberate use of setting to contribute to other important aspects of the story and the writing. The paper references textual evidence for support. The successful emotional affect of "The Lottery" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are contingent on the effective and detailed use of the settings to make prominent aspects of the works such as character and atmosphere. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the numerous writers with a talent for
An analytical essay discussing the importance of setting in The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe and Where is Here, by Joyce Carol Oates.
The author gives a description of short story writer, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe's place in the history of the U.S. is presented. As literary editor of "Graham's Lady's" and "Gentleman's Magazine," Poe became a major figure in American letters. Although his heavy drinking cost him his job, Poe continued to write in a cool style that was the polar opposite of his romantic poems and horror stories. Thomas Fleming gives details for his main idea that Poe’s works are widely known due to his technique of writing. Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat” is perfect examples of his suspenseful writing technique that grabs his audience, holds on to readers throughout the entire story and leaves the audience on the edge of their seats. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are always thought of as being suspenseful and extremely dramatic. To achieve the suspense in Edgar Allen Poe’s, he uses gothic imagery to help add an unknown, eerie effect. The author, Thomas Fleming, gives an example with “…with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” both tell stories using literary techniques of tone, symbolism, and irony that help to convey stories that leave the reader baffled by their ending. Although Hawthorne and Jackson utilize these literary techniques in a different way, both of the stories end with a sense of darkness.
Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.
"Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else... Place is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of, what happened? Who 's here? Who 's coming?” Eudora Welty stated this, emphasizing the importance setting has on a story. Authors of all kinds, young and old, famous and not famous, boy or girl—they all have at least one thing in common: setting. In every story a setting is described, sometimes in exceeding detail. Some authors make an attempt to give their audience full understanding of the setting their story is taking place. Many do this by describing the smells, colors, textures, sounds, and sometimes even tastes, to the reader. In many early-American writings, authors go ‘above and beyond’ to help their reader understand the setting, so as to feel what the writer is feeling. Setting often stirs a sense of empathy in the reader’s mind if the descriptions are well-written and captivating. Authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and especially Edgar Allan Poe are well-known for their use of description in the setting. Two very successful stories, written by these authors, are excellent examples of setting. Furthermore, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Poe, and “Where is Here?” by Oates both display how the author uses setting to help the reader visualize the situation, create
Almost every person in the world holds a set of traditions which have been established and practiced for a long period of time. However, some traditions often cause us to not see the rationality despite of the destructive nature it may have. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, a sacrifice of one’s life becomes the “jackpot” of an annual event held in a small town. This society’s traditions have caused the people to do away with their rational thoughts and the values of their lives as they have become so stuck in their own cultural beliefs.
Edgar Allen Poe is a critic of short stories and poetry, and often puts his own theories into his writing. Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” falls into this category in the idea of the single effect. The short story starts with the Narrator going to visit his old friend, Roderick Usher because of a letter Roderick writes to him. The Narrator goes to the house and spends time with Usher, but all starts to go array when Roderick thinks his sister is dead and buries her. She comes out of her tomb and jumps at Usher and the House of Usher falls and Roderick dies. Poe argues that all short stories should have a single effect; a feeling the author should make the reader feel. The single effect of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is terror. Poe creates the single effect of terror through the settings, characters, and elements of the story. He does this through the setting of Usher’s room and Madeline’s tomb; through the characters of Roderick and Madeline Usher; and through the element of the Haunted Palace.
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and "The Story of the Hour" by Kate Chopin, both have resemblances and appears differently in relation to the elements of writing. Especially, when the authors use foreshadowing to control the demeanors of the stories and add irony to intentionally lie to the reader. Both stories have comparable qualities and stands out from respects to their parts of the story, especially the writers' usage of irony and mood.
In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the change in tone shifts over time starting with a gleeful and sunny beginning turning to a ghastly and horrifying story towards the resolution. The author shifts her tone in order to make a more dramatic ending that will stick with the reader, the ending transforms the short story from realism to symbolism so that the readers can further use this story in a real world context.
Although reader-response theory may tend to focus on the reader’s interpretation of the text, it does not discount the writer’s sense of authorship, the social, historical, or even political context surrounding a given work of literature, or the text itself. In brief, “The Lottery” tells the story of an annual summer drawing that initially appears innocent to the reader, but becomes more tension-filled and ultimately dangerous as the short story continues. By the end of the piece, it is revealed that the lottery is not a fortunate winning at all, but an ancient ritual in which a group of relatively modern townspeople end up stoning the chosen woman (Jackson). The author,
Shirley Jackson is to be considered one of the best authors of the 1900’s. Her style of writing reeled in readers from all different ages. She can be creepy, hilarious, and inspiring to the eyes that see her words. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, she keeps the reader on the edge of their seat wanting to continue reading beyond the final word. She uses literary devices to shape her story to grab her readers attention all throughout the story. By using these literary devices, Shirley Jackson shows off her dark and twisted side as well as her fantastic writing style to emphasize why she is one of the writers of her generation.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence is an unpredictable, fairytale-like short story about a mother of three who constantly worries about her financial problems. She has a son who is fervent about figuring out a solution to her predicament. This story also has an abrupt ending that gives off strong emotion. Another short story, called “The Lottery”, has the same spectacle of ending the story with suspense. Written by Shirley Jackson, this story begins with a sunny day in a village, but miserably ends with the stoning of one of the villagers. “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and “The Lottery” are two sensational stories that have tragic ironies; however, they differ in tone
Chills slide down your spine as a breath of wind rushes past your frame. Incoherent whispering fills your ear due to the flowing wind… Edgar Allen Poe, one of America’s most prolific writers, wrote numerous horror stories that defined the genre for modern writing. Poe used a specific writing style, which is now well known, but was it constant from one story to the next? Despite differences in plot and length, there are similarities of tone, setting, structure, narration, and character between two of his most famous stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” that allude to Poe’s true writing style.
Looking at the atmosphere within the setting of “The Lottery” and “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” one can make a clear perspicacity that the atmosphere of these two stories had a great role to play and impact on the characters.