Theme Of Conflict In The Lottery

In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by David Herbert Lawrence, there is this family, as the family wants to keep their economic status, the mom want’s to have money all the time. The Mom has a mental mindset of the family being rich, as she believes that she has money, but in reality, the family is not rich and they have no money as they are in debt. The mom is unhappy as the parent's marriage is unsatisfactory, the mom thought she was lucky before she got married to her husband, so she thinks that her husband gave her bad luck. Both parents have no luck. The mom does not like her own children. The mom tells his son Paul, that she and Dad have no luck. This short story has many secrets that various of the characters keep from one another. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the theme is a Moral Obligation as Hester the mom does not like her kids and only her and the kids know, Paul keeps from his mom that him, uncle Oscar, and Bassett have been betting on horse races and that the “Rocking-Horse” gives Paul luck.

In both “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the authors take critical aim at two staples of mainstream values, materialism and tradition respectively. Both authors approach these themes through several different literary devices such as personification and symbolism; however, it is the authors' use of characterization that most develop their themes. We'll be taking a look at the parallel passages in the stories that advance their themes particularly when those passages involve both of the authors' subtle character descriptions, and why this method of character development is so powerful in conveying the authors' messages.

I. The townspeople in “The Lottery” and the family members in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” are caught up in their passions.

When a loving, caring, family oriented, women come in conflict with the horrible, despicable, inhumane lottery in a situation in which the town goes together, the results may be a terrible end in a young life. In “The Lottery” written by, Shirley Jackson, the main character Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s and the town folk are the main characters of this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses the use of characterization to portray the main ideas of the story. Shirley Jackson also uses the use of plot structure and the point of view in which the story is being told. The Lottery is a way to make a sacrifice for a good harvest in the upcoming season.

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” by D. H. Lawrence, and “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the two authors illustrate symbols and themes throughout their stories in which one common idea is present: perhaps winning is not always positive.

The first of the two stories I chose to compare and contrast is titled “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the second story is titled “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence. I will compare each of their themes, characters, and plot developments in which they are both similar and different. One of the strongest comparison would be that both stories deal with the subject of luck in one sense or another. The Lottery being considered a game of chance in which luck plays an important factor in being the chosen winner but Luck in the Lottery has a different twist of fate because the winner of the Lottery is actually the

“The Lottery” and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” may have a few similarities, but when it comes to their conflict, plot, and structure, they differ for the majority.

“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.

Shirley Jackson’s twisted story, “The Lottery,” takes place in a small town with a measly population of about 300 people. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson, a well-known civilian in the town is one of the 300 people with their lives at risk when the annual Lottery is held. The lottery is a system of selecting a family, then selecting a member of that family to be killed. In this town, and probably everywhere else in the world, no one wants to be the one to die. The reason why the lottery is held is unknown, as the text has not explicitly stated a reason. A possible lesson that “The Lottery” promotes is that selfishness is human nature. Selfishness by itself can be so overpowering that it

“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

Their quest to hunt and kill the other led to nothing of importance or progression, they became trapped in peril as the force of mother nature became a bigger conflict than their ultimate enemy. In The Lottery the characters are emotionless towards others, they feel no empathy or remorse. As Tessie was put to death the characters remained calm, sort of relieved it wasn’t them on the other side of the pebbles being put to death by the “community” because of a draw. Even Tessie Hutchinson wasn’t one to complain before her fate of being stoned to death had become reality. After it was her who was chosen, she objected the tradition. The villagers are narcissistic and completely oblivious to the transgressive June 27th tradition. This is a direct insight into how people in our real world operate. We only seek action and justice once the problem begins to affect us firsthand. The lack of empathy prevents us from creating an amicable world.

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.

“The Lottery,” leaves the reader guessing until the end, wondering what the lottery consists of.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by D. H. Lawrence in which he creates a criticism of the modernized world’s admiration and desire for material objects. It was published in Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 1926 for the first time (E-Notes). The story’s main character, Hester, is a beautiful woman who is completely consumed by the idea of possession, and so she loses out on the love of family and the happiness of life. Her son, Paul, also learns to love wealth because of his negligent mother, constantly hearing the “whispers” of empty pockets in their home. D. H. Lawrence uses the relationship between Paul and Hester and their money in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” to show the shortcomings

Tessie’s personality is somewhat similar to Paul’s but they also have their differences. Paul is very hopeful about winning the money his family needs, he has an incredible love for his mother. He is also very passionate about horse-races. He has a real gift for picking a winner and it’s this attitude that leads him to make money for his mother and save their house from haunting them. Tessie is also hopeful, hopeful that she will not ‘win’ the lottery. Of course, we find as we read that this doesn’t happen. Tessie does ‘win’ the lottery and she seems to be the only one that is saddened by this fact. Little Paul is a very hopeful, fortunate boy. He so vividly pictures the horse races to come while riding his rocking-horse, it’s as if he’s in the race himself and the rocking-horse is the winning horse. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, Lawrence really paints a imaginative picture with descriptions such as with Paul’s "big blue eyes that had an uncanny cold fire in them”, and in “The Lottery” Jackson paints a picture with words such as The town's children are collecting rocks like young children regularly do. The men are "speaking of rain, planting, tractors and taxes." The women are making small talk with one another. It seems like a regular day in a regular town.” So, in both stories the setting is different and the people are different but they have a similarity in the fact that they are all gambling for something, whether good or bad. In reading these