Importance Of Luck In Short Story

Every story has a setting. Whether it is in this world or one that is completely imaginary, the setting of any story is necessary in order to understand the characters. The characters in the following three short stories are shaped by their setting and would not be the same if the setting was different. Over the course of each story it is easy to see how vital the setting is in order for the reader to fully understand the characters and their lives. Therefore, while the reader reads these stories they must analyze how the setting affects the characters, the obstacles that the setting creates, and what it tells us about the characters.

In literature, many authors love for throw an unexpected twist as the end. Shirley Jackson is no exception. In the short stories “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson both take twist that the reader doesn’t expect. In “The Lottery” a small town gathers to draw a winner; however Tessie Hutchinson is not delighted to be the winner. Also in “The Possibility of Evil” another small town has an unexpected villain who resides on Pleasant St. Shirley Jackson uses literary devices to depict twist at the end of her short stories because she used literary devices such as syntax, irony and mood.

Luck is many times considered silly or just part of someone’s imagination, but it can really play a big role in what becomes of an individual. In the first chapter, titled “The Matthew Effect”, we

According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence portray how people can act in atrocious ways when impacted by society. In both of these short stories there is an untimely death of one of the characters. The difference between the deaths is the emotional relation with the characters. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast these two pieces of literature through the similarities and differences in the settings, characters, theme, and plot.

We have been assigned many great stories to read while in this class. In this paper we will cover and analyze three different short stories and quickly compare and contrast things they have in common. This paper will analyze “A Rose for Emily”, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “The Cask of Amontillado”. We will analyze the different symbolism throughout all the stories such as “the elusive definition of a good man” which comes from “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, also themes in the different stories like traditions people follow, and the power that death has.

Joseph Conrad once said, “It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck”. Nailer, the main character of Paolo Bacigalupi’s book Ship Breaker, wasn’t born lucky, he was born a ship breaker. Ship breakers are child and adult laborers who spend their days starving, poor, and working away to take the anything valuable off old ships for the big companies. Throughout Nailer’s life, he has suffered through various unfortunate events. However, with a strong belief of luck and having other superstitions, his life becomes more manageable. In Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi demonstrates that being superstitious and believing in various degrees of luck allows people to more easily feel in control of uncontrollable situations.

“A Rose for Emily,” “A Worn Path,” and “The Lottery” by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Shirley Jackson all have similar writing styles in their literature. In these three short stories the authors all use contrasting nature within their literature to predict the outcome and to learn for the upcoming events in the readings. The authors take subliminal phrases and subliminal symbolic text to have the reader become more attached and understand more of what the characters, setting and theme of the story has to offer. Using these three stories the reader of this essay will understand and grasp the symbolic meanings in text of each these short stories.

One of the characters, Mr. Summers, gives everyone the directions of how to play the lottery. The author does not disclose to us what the directions are, but the reader would probably assume that a lottery is a gambling game that is played in order to win a prize. In contrast, the irony of this story is that whoever receives a piece of paper with a black mark is stoned to death. This approach is what makes this short story disturbing. It brings a discomforting thought as to why the villagers would ever behave in such a despicable manner. This ending is a great example of tragic irony because most of the story has no deliberate conflict until right at the very end when there was the abrupt death of Tessa.

There are times in life that we attribute good luck to our hard work, dedication or talent but there are some other times when we can say that luck is just a chance that we get. As we can see on the work of this two authors James H. Austin the author of “Four kinds of chance” published in Saturday Review and Robert H. Frank author of “why luck matters much more than you think” published in The Atlantic (May 2016) they show the reader how chances can influence in different ways. After reading their work I consider Robert H Frank article more effectively fulfills his thesis.

The short stories of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Destructors by Graham Greene” both had very interesting plots and unexpected endings. The plots of both stories are different but the meaning are the same. The climax of the two stories are built to keep you in suspense and as you get to the end and its reveals the irony of the stories. The characters in the stories set the presence, pace and tone, the characters environments reveal the difficulty within the plots of the stories and why they choose to do the things they do.

The short stories can be described as the lottery or gamble of life though a game.

Thesis: Death is the main theme of both short stories and both authors portrayed this dark and dreary idea as a game the characters are playing.

The Rocking Horse Winner, by D.H. Lawrence, is an informative story about luck and one's own fortune.  In this story, Lawrence attempts to illustrate how one can guide one's own fate, instead of allowing things to happen by chance.  He believes that the only person that affects what happens to someone, is really that person himself.  "Everything is what you make of it," is Lawrence's message to the reader.  By his use of characterization, instructional images, and irony in The Rocking Horse Winner, D.H. Lawrence attempts to convey to the reader that success and luck are not something that one simply waits for to arrive, but things that one must works to achieve.

Throughout this short story the audience is introduced to many characters. Bobby Martin, Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, Mr. Martin, Baxter, Old Man Warner, Bill Hutchinson, Tessie Hutchinson, Mrs. Delacroix, Mrs. Dunbar, Watson boy, Bill Jr., Nancy, and little Davey. These characters are a key aspect to the lottery. Each character has their own feelings about the lottery at the beginning, but what happens when the lottery affects them and their family? To understand this, the thoughts of individual characters have to be explored.