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In the short story the "Lottery" by Shirely Jackson, one of the main conflicts starts when the character "Bill Hutchinson" reveals his slip of paper. Bill's wife Tessie tires to make excuses of if being unfair and that Mr. Summers didn't give Bill enough time to take "any paper he wanted" (Jackson 5). The story progresses so that once a year, a member of society is singled out and put against those who were their friends, and even their own family. When Tessie "wins" the lottery the rest of her family seems to have no problem at all in joining the rest of the community against her. Even while Tessie starts arguing the about unfairness, her husband tells her to "Shut up," and essentially just accept what could happen.

A conflict between a family is also present in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" between mother and daughter and sister against sister. The narrator which is the mother and her younger daughter Maggie seem to have fallen into seclusion against the changing society. The narrator's other daughter Dee (Wangero) comes pay them a visit with her husband and it is clear that being away in a more populated has taken its effect on Dee, as her clothing has changed. The main conflict comes when Dee asks to take some old quilts that were made by her grandmother with old pieces of fabric. Dee's mother had already promised the quilts to Maggie, and Dee is angered, saying that her sister would use them every day "...and in five years they'd be in rags" (Walker 7). They have a dispute about Dee getting in touch with her roots when it seems she's never been farther from them. The conflict is resolved when Dee's mother resolves to uphold her promise, and Dee accepts it.

The conflicts end in two completely different ways. In "The Lottery" Tessie is killed and in "Everyday Use" Dee simply accepts that the quilts are not going be given to her. The conflicts both involve one member of the family being outcast from the rest of the family and both by means of society.

Blog Post 1
Similarities of Conflict

Societal Conflict in “Everyday Use” and “The Lottery”

The short stories “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson there is a similarity of conflict in the fact that both of these stories contain a primal, simple society being juxtaposed against a “civilized” society. In “Everyday Use” this is basically right in front of the reader as Dee comes from a totally different world where she is exposed to the outside world, shocking Maggie and her mother. “The Lottery” is more of a conflict with the reader who is shocked to discover such a seemingly “normal” society doing something so frightening as to stone to death the winner of a lottery. Many reasons for this conflict as also very similar in the two stories and one example would be the settings of each story. The setting of each story is clearly defined as being outside the realm of what is loosely termed as “civilization”. “Everyday Use” takes place is a somewhat secluded area of the Deep South and Maggie and her mother live fairly primal fashion. Similar to this is the setting of “The Lottery” where again it is a secluded small town outside of civilization. It probably would have been possible for people in either respect to get to a city or more populated area, however it still seems as if the people in these areas find themselves no more than 20-some miles from their homes in their lifetimes and both of the parties seem comfortable in their current living situation.

Both of these areas are also fairly realistic in the way that they are presented, being as they are secluded people. What is interesting is the reaction from the reader. Because Dee is acting so fake in “Everyday Use” the reader terms her as a sort of antagonistic character. She was the bad force that interrupted the good. However, Dee did what a lot of people do all around the world everyday. They leave a secluded area to attend school and seemingly “make something of themselves”. Even though Dee has a fake personality, it is what she aspired to. In contrast, the people of the small village in “The Lottery”, although it does not say anything as to their travel, knowledge of the outside world or education, are considered primal and evil in the end for stoning someone to death for winning a lottery. However, in “Everyday Use” the reader would side with the more realistic, less freewheeling side of the matter with Maggie and her mother simply because of their countenance. It is ironic in a sense, and it is shocking that the reader can be twisted as to what he or she thinks is right and civil. These two stories make the reader think as to what is in a sense, what are right and wrong ways of living. The reader also asks themselves if they are, indeed, in tune with their definition of “civil” way of living.

Of all the possibilities for commonalities among the conflict in short stories read thus far in EL267, the most obvious and interesting is the treatment of women in “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Lottery.”
In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers,” the women are blatantly demeaned by the men every time they are together. The importance of women in the kitchen is emphasized often. For example, Mrs. Hale is very concerned about leaving her kitchen with chores left undone, and before the men go upstairs in the Wrights’ house, they laugh and demean the women’s livelihood: “’Nothing here but kitchen things,’ he said with a little laugh for the insignificance of kitchen things” (Glaspell 5). They continue to mock the women by stating that, “…women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 5). As if their mocking was not enough, they even feel it necessary to criticize Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping abilities, never once considering that the dirt and mess left behind might have been left from one of their men that they sent to make a fire earlier.

Any time a man is present, even for just a minute, they are demeaning the women. For example, when the men come back downstairs and see the women looking at Mrs. Wright’s quilt, wondering if she was going to knot it, they make fun of the women and mock them. Similarly, when the women packed Mrs. Wright’s possessions to take to her, the men are not at all concerned with what they were bringing, as if they would never bring anything of any substance to Mrs. Wright. Would they have searched more closely if a male was bringing her belongings? It never crossed the men’s minds that the women were capable of solving the mystery; in reality, they are the only ones who are able to find a motive for Mrs. Wright’s actions.

In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” the women are demeaned by the male characters, yet when it comes to the actual results of the lottery, they are considered equal. Although the poor treatment of women is not as blatant as it is in “A Jury of Her Peers,” the men make sexist comments nonetheless; the fact that only men could be considered “heads of household” is also quite sexist. For example, when Mrs. Dunbar states that she will be drawing for her husband because he has broken his leg, Mr. Summers asks, “Don’t you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?” (Jackson 3) He makes a similar comment when he expresses his approval that the Watson boy is drawing for his family: “Glad to see your mother’s got a man to do it” (Jackson 3). It is evident that women are the last resort for the drawing.

Women are depicted as nothing more than mindless property in “The Lottery.” Women only speak on a few occasions, and when they do, they either sound like they are air-heads, or they sound as though they are complaining and nagging. For example, Mrs. Hutchinson shows up late for the lottery saying, “Clean forgot what day it was. Thought my old man was out back stacking wood, and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running” (Jackson 2). Similarly, she is seen later complaining about the lottery and about how it is “unfair.” The fact that married daughters must draw with their husband’s family shows that women are considered the property of their husbands; they have no choice in the matter.

The treatment of women in “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Lottery” are quite similar. There is a distinct conflict between the women and the men in their lives. The men often treat them as much less than equal, and even more often mock and make quite public the fact that women are quite insignificant for anything but housework.

In the essay by Eudora Welty, the character Phoenix faces a conflict between herself and her body. Eudora let’s us, the reader, know that Phoenix is very old and is on a very long journey into town. With her being very old, you can get the sense she might be weak and very tired and that she is pushing herself and her body that extra mile to get to her destination. Through her journey she keeps pushing her body and her mind towards her goal- medicine for her grandson. She won’t give up until she has reached it. Langston Hughes, another writer, writes about a character that has a similar conflict.
Within Langston Hughes essay, his character, Sargeant, is conflicting with himself and his body. Hughes writes that he is very tired and weak from no food and no sleep. Although, Sargeant is pushing his mind and body to find a place to rest and to find food to stop the hunger. Both characters are on a long journey to accomplish what they are set out to do. They are both conflicting with their bodies and mind, by pushing themselves to the maximum.

Conflict

In the Lottery and Everyday Use there is a similar conflict, tradition. Tradition, to a lot of people, is a religion. In the Lottery there was a question of tradition with holding a lottery every year. The problem with the tradition is that a person was stoned to death every year. The elderly in the story believe that tradition was tradition and some of the younger folk in the village believe that the tradition should be stopped. One villager even spoke up to say that other villages stopped holding their lotteries because of the ethics of the tradition. To most people ethically it is wrong to stone someone. However in the villagers eyes it was a tradition and they obviously felt strongly about the tradition of their elders or the lottery would not be held.
Everyday Use confronts a similar conflict of tradition however; the tradition in Everyday Use is not a question of ethics but a question of practicality. Momma is introduced with a conflict between her two daughters wanting the same quilt. Momma’s daughter Dee spots a quilt that she wants to have as a piece of artwork from “her people.” Dee wants to place use the quilt as if it was a piece of art to display. Maggie, Momma’s younger daughter, was promised the quilt as a wedding gift and Momma speaks passionately about Maggie using the quilt in everyday use. The tradition lies within the quilt; it is something that Momma and Maggie see as practical and useful. Whereas Dee sees the quilt as a piece of history to arrogantly display to all of her friends. So the tradition conflict in this story is the question of which sister is truly embracing their ethnicity and culture. Maggie does embrace her culture whereas Dee wants to separate herself from her culture and past.
Both short stories characters are confronted with tradition conflict; one that embraces the tradition and intends to see it through where the other characters want to begin a new tradition or simply end the tradition. In the Lottery the tradition ending is probably the best alternative and the conflict is the tradition itself whereas in Everyday Use ending the tradition is the conflict.

T. Wineland
Professor Lee Hobbs
EL 267.01 American Literature 1915-Present
12 February 2008

Internal conflict in a narrative can result in a realization of a character’s true self and is accurately portrayed by Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers.” This narrative introduces a character by the name of Mrs. Peters who presents herself as a Sheriff’s wife, and an upholder of the law. As the story progresses, however, the opinions and feelings of Mrs. Hale unknowingly influence Mrs. Peters and enlighten her to the true situation and its circumstances. This in turn forces Mrs. Peters to examine her true convictions in the presence of this conundrum. In the final stages of the narrative, Mrs. Peters ultimately puts aside her duties as a Sheriff’s wife and embraces the loyalty and empathy she feels towards Mrs. Wright.

In addition to the realization of a character’s true self, an internal conflict can cause a character to unexpectedly step outside of their usual persona. In “Everyday Use” one of Alice Walker’s characters does just this. The mother character in the narrative is easily swayed and influenced when confronted by her daughter, Dee. When Dee visits her mother announcing that she will be taking the churn top and the dasher, the mother puts up little to no fuss. However, when Dee attempts to take two quilts from the home, which were initially promised to Maggie, the mother is forced to look within. She can once again let Dee overrule her decision, or she can step outside of her usual comfort zone, and uphold her promise. In the end, the mother, though forced to step into unknown territory, takes a stand, pulls the quilts from Dee’s grasp and places the same in Maggie’s arms.

I found a conflict in both the story of “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Lottery”. In the Jury story, the women ran into the issue of whether exposing the evidence of the bird was the moral thing to do. They stumbled over each side of morality weighing the options both pro and con. In the end, the women decided to keep this key information/evidence silent from the men. These men, including the sheriff and county attorney, could use this evidence to prosecute the woman for her husband’s murder, the owners of the house. In the Lottery story, the families obviously were on edge. No one wanted to get the piece of paper with the black dot on it. The Hutchison family got sucked into the second round of the lottery after dad’s unfortunate initial win. The wife reacted with extreme distress against the unfortunate loss to their family. Upon the second round, the wife obtained the piece of paper with the dot while her family remained lucky. She was then stoned as for she was the chosen one.
The conflict I found was within the character’s inability to accept the circumstances that were in place. The characters in both stories, that caused conflict, are of the female gender. I think this up-ed the ante in that they caused more drama by trying to manipulate the situation to better their own agendas. The woman in the Jury story chose to keep the bird evidence hush-hush from the men. Why keep it silent? I didn’t understand how they justified keeping the bird silent from the men. The sole reason for doing this was because they felt sorry for the accused wife? - Which was never really was concluded. The only other impact was one woman felt guilty for not visiting the wife and said she wished that she would have. The wife of the Lottery story threw a fit when her husband won the black dotted paper. If she wouldn’t have complained and made such an ordeal of the matter, she wouldn’t have drawn the paper on the second time herself. I can understand her anger and reason for being upset, but I think she made it worse by being so out spoken and mean about it. The drama these women caused impacted them negatively. I feel that if the characters would have just accepted what happened, they wouldn’t have put themselves into a bad situation [i.e., obstructing justice (the jury) and being stoned (the lottery)].

C. Bell
02-11-08
EL267-01
Mr. Lee Hobbs

Similarity of Conflict in Two Short Stories

Throughout reading “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I noticed a similarity in conflict in the two short stories. Although there were many conflicts in each of the two short stories, I thought that the conflict of tradition was most prevalent. Tradition is something that is handed down such as practices, doctrines, and customs. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is surrounded around a tradition. It is a story about a tradition that is followed once a year and lasts for two hours on June 27th and starts at ten o’clock in the morning. The village faithfully follows the tradition using a black box that was used by the first people of the village. The tradition is a lottery where all the villagers must be present to draw a piece of paper. The men of each family draw first and then so on. The family that pulls the black dot must once again pull from the black box and the person in the family that gets the black dot will get stoned by the villagers. This story has a conflict with tradition because there is a rumor that the tradition is being dropped by some other villages. Mr. Adams says, “They do say that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” (Jackson, 1948, p.4). Old Man Warner replies to his comment, “Pack of crazy fools. Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. There’s always been a lottery” (Jackson, 1948, p.4). There is a conflict present between the older folks who have held the tradition of the lottery to be important and younger villagers who believe it to be unimportant. There is also a conflict of tradition that deals with Tessie Hutchinson and her fight against the tradition. Tessie Hutchinson is picked to get stoned. She argues saying, “You didn’t give him enough time to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (Jackson, 1948, p.5) She cries to the villagers till the end that, “I think we ought to start over, I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him enough time to choose” (Jackson, 1948, p. 5).
In the short story “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, there was also a conflict present that dealt with tradition. The struggle was between Mama and her daughter Dee. Their ideas of tradition were very different. The conflict began when Dee came home for a rare visit and wanted to take a few things from the house that she thought were precious to her African American heritage. There was no problem until she asked Mama if she could take two quilts that Mama had promised to her other daughter Maggie. Dee asks her Mama, “Can I have these old quilts?” and Mama replies, “Why don’t you take one or two of the others?” (Jackson, 1948, p. 6) Mama had promised the quilts to Maggie. Dee wanted the two quilts especially because they were stitched by hand by Grandma Dee out of dresses that Grandma Dee won and shirts that belonged to Grandpa Jattell. There were also parts of Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he had from the Civil War. Dee argued that, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Jackson, 1948, p. 6). Dee and Mama had a different view on the tradition of the quilts. Quilt making was a tradition in their family and Maggie had learned to quilt. Dee didn’t learn how to quilt. Mama and Maggie had a tradition of using the things that they had made. Dee had an opposite view. She wanted to show off her heritage by hanging and presenting the things that were made by her family members. Mama and Maggie thought that they would cherish the quilts by continuing to use them.
Overall, between “Everyday Use” and “The Lottery” there was a similar conflict of tradition. There was a fight against a tradition and there was a fight to honor a tradition in different ways.

Works Cited

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” 1948 The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, 2005.

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” 1973. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia. 5th Compact Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.

RD

Comparing the two short stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, I noticed a comparative conflict between the two showing similarity with each other. In “The Lottery”, there is a conflict between Tessie and the rest of the crowd. When drawing the slips of paper, she fights for a recall and gets it. After she is now chosen to be stoned to death, she still fights the crowd with her cries about how the tradition is not fair and not right.
In “A Jury of Her Peers”, there are constant scenarios where a conflict between Mrs. Hale and the group of men searching the house for clues that would hint them towards the murderer are evident. To name a few, one would be the time that the men came towards the two women and laughed at them as they were trying to find some clues on their own when the men mistook it for women ‘doing their thing’ in the kitchen. Another example would be when the women brought certain items to the jailhouse in which one of them ended up being evidence to lead them all to the murderer. In both stories, there is a conflict between a person and society. In “The Lottery” it is easily seen due to the entire community undergoing the ritual and not listening to Tessie. In “A Jury of Her Peers” it is also seen countless times throughout the story the struggle of Mrs. Hale to be taken seriously. Although she did not fight a community, the ‘society’ be represented here would be the men that she had encountered that would not take her seriously in the story.

02.13.08

The conflict theme of person versus society in Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” can be shown by the example that pits men against women in roles of gender status. With a dead husband in the home and no obvious perpetrator, the investigating men immediately suspect a ‘heartless’ wife who they deem likely concerned with nothing more than womanly “trifles.” These men believe the woman’s place is in the home and have no concern for her duties or pleasures. These presumptions are indicative of the supposed role of women in society. The attitudes of the men imply that women and Mrs. Wright specifically are not equal to or as important as men. This theory is also seen by the treatment of the women who wait in the home during the investigative process. Disrespecting these women as inferior, the men ultimately miss out on important clues that might otherwise help the investigation. As the invited women wait virtually unnoticed in the home, their compassion for the condemned woman grows, which adds additional conflict to the story.

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” also highlights the conflict of person versus society. A young, black, Southern woman fights with her innate nature to rise above the ethnic and class struggles typical of the time period in which the story was written. The entitlement that Dee feels she is owed as an educated, adult black woman offers an obvious example of her revolt against societal expectations and allowances. While she displays an arrogant demeanor, Dee attempts to connect with her heritage, which also denotes an internal struggle. Her ‘growth’ as a black woman, along with the denouncement of her slave name, not only portrays her struggle against her societal surrounding, but also emphasizes a conflict within her own family, who remain proud of themselves regardless of education, involvement, or belongings. Dee’s fight to move forward in an unwilling society and disinterested family proves a major conflict.

In the short story “On the Road”, there conflicts that take place. One of the underlying conflicts within the story is the symbolic conflict between the snow and night. The snow represents white people and night represents African Americans. When people think of night, usually people think of darkness. Darkness is a metaphor for evil. When people think of snow, usually the color white comes to mind. The color white is a metaphor for good. In “On the Road”, the main character Sargeant, is trying to find shelter and a reverend refuses to help him. So Sargeant goes to the church and tries to break in. The police catch him (who are white) and put him in jail. As Sargeant is in jail, he dreams of being beaten by police while he tries to get on a freight train. He feels that white people suppress black people. Just like the snow and the night, the snow is thought of as good and the night as bad.
In “A Worn Path”, there are a couple different conflicts that take place within the story. One of the conflicts within the story is between Phoenix and the hunter she met during her journey into town. She meets a white man, who helps her out of a ditch. This man has a vehicle which increases his economic status. Phoenix is a poor, African American woman. The conflict in this part of the story is economic status. The white man tells her to go home because the journey into town is such a far walk, and Phoenix has no choice, but to walk because she more than likely cannot afford a car.
The similarity between these two conflicts in both stories is that white people always have the “upper-hand” on black people. In “On the Road”, the policemen were presumably white males, who are putting an African American, who is trying to find shelter during a snowy night. In “A Worn Path” a white man, helps an old, African American woman out of a ditch, but does not offer her a ride in his vehicle. In both conflicts, the African Americans are poor, and the white people are economically stable.

The two conflicts that I saw the most similarities between are "The Worn Path" by Eudora Welty and "Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. Both of these stories have main characters that are African American females, and both address the same issues of ethnicity and gender; however, "The Worn Path" was actually written but a white female, so that can't be the only similarity between them. The conflict in both stories comes from mothers striving to be strong enough to raise their children (presumably by themselves as no mention is made of fathers or other guardians) and live their lives. Phoenix in “The Worn Path” uses her strength, dedication, and maternal love of her grandson to overcome the journey she has undergone for him, and also to overcome her own failing mind and remember that she took the journey for him. The mother in “Everyday Use,” on the other hand, is trying to protect herself and her daughter Maggie from outside influences. More than anything, she seems to be protecting their way of life and trying to stay true to her values rather than altering herself to something she doesn’t believe in.

But neither conflict is totally about maternal love. Part of the conflict of both stories is poverty, as each mother struggles against poverty to give he children what they need. Phoenix takes the long journey because she doesn’t have money for her grandson’s medicine, and so must travel to get it from charity. The Mother in “Everyday Use” raises money to send Dee for an education because she’s too poor to pay herself. There are also conflicts between ethnicities – like where Phoenix meets a white boy and, after he lies to her, steals money from him. “Everyday Use” shows a conflict between ethnicities with Dee’s change in name, but seems to imply that one shouldn’t put so much emphasis on their ethnicity that they forget their heritage.

It could be argued that conflict makes the world go around. It certainly, at the very least, makes life more interesting. The same theory seems to hold true in literature. Conflict is one of the central themes to many pieces of literature including, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell. Although there are many types of conflict, such as those that occur between characters, and those that occur within nature, “The Lottery” and “A Jury of Her Peers” share different types of conflict.
In each of these stories, a central character faces a conflict against society. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, Minnie Foster is being accused of murdering her husband. As Minnie’s home, the scene of the crime is being investigated by Mr. Peters, the Sherriff, and a man who is the county attorney, the scene is being set for Minnie’s conflict. The men in the story who are investigating the crime, her peers, are her enemy. They are almost completely convinced that Minnie has committed the murder. As the story continues, and the men attempt to gather more evidence, it becomes apparent that she is going to be tried for murder. This will add an additional character of society that will be against her, the judge and/or jury. Furthermore, anyone who is accused of murder automatically has a conflict with society as a whole, because murder is against the law, and considered to be a crime against humanity. Unlike Minnie, Tessie Hutchinson does not begin the story “The Lottery” in conflict with anyone. In the beginning, Tessie is friendly with all of her neighbors at the gathering. They laugh and giggle together while the lottery is taking place. It is not until after the lottery has taken place, and Tessie has drawn the marked slip of paper that her troubles begin. The biggest conflict of course is that the marked piece of paper meant that she was to be stoned to death by the rest of the village. The same people she was friendly with in the beginning were the ones who would kill her later.
Tradition seems like it should be a harmless enough idea. However, in both “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Lottery”, tradition causes turmoil for the characters involved. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are left alone downstairs, to deal with the “trifles” in Minnie’s kitchen, while the men went upstairs to investigate the murder. There is an underlying theme that suggests, traditionally, that was where the women belonged, in the kitchen, as opposed to assisting the men with their work. This is sediment is furthered by the statement made by the County Attorney when the women are left in the kitchen. He states “…you women might come upon a clue to the motive—and that’s the thing we need. But would the woman know a clue if they did come upon it?” It was clear that the men expected the woman to maintain their traditional role of the homemaker and did not think that it would have been the woman’s places to help with an investigation. Tradition is the main reason for Tessie Hutchinson being stoned to death in “The Lottery.” The beginning of the story tells of the box in which the names are pulled from. It states that even though the box was worn, “no one like to upset tradition.” Reading further in the story, The Adams family tells that “over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.” Old man Warner scolds the couple and says “There’s always been a lottery. Used to be a saying about Lottery in June, corn heavy soon.” He suggests that those who want to discontinue the lottery are “young fools” and there’d be trouble if the tradition was discontinued. It is suggested that the lottery was previously done for population control, but at the time of the story this practice was no longer necessary. However, this was not a valid reason to discontinue the tradition.
Perhaps the most glaringly similar conflict in both “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Lottery” is the age old conflict of men against women. This is exhibited in many ways throughout the stories. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, whom is also the Sherriff’s wife, begin “A Jury of Her Peers” as kind of a team of their own. Mrs. Peters was asked to get some of Minnie’s personal effects from the Foster home, but she did not want to be left alone, so she asked for Mrs. Hale to accompany her. This fear is made fun of by Mr. Peters when he stated that “his wife wished Mrs. Hale would come too” because he guessed she was getting scared and wanted another woman along. A few pages later in the story, the women get to Minnie’s house and see that she was forced to leave her kitchen a mess. This upset the women, but was trivialized by the men. The Sherriff says “Nothing here but kitchen things” and laughs. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters defend Minnie by saying that it’s a lot of work to keep up a farm, and that men are difficult to look after. The County Attorney responds with “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see.” Later in the story, the men make fun of the women for debating “quilting verses knotting.” The ultimate power play occurs at the end of the story, when the men have finished investigating and the women have hid any clues that might indicate Minnie in her husband’s murder. In “The Lottery”, the men verses women concept is not quite as apparent. In the beginning of the story, the reader is told that Mr. Summers ran the lottery every year. This isn’t really important until a woman is the one who is to be stoned. It is at this point that Tessie accuses Mr. Summers of rushing and says that the lottery was unfair. Another part of the story that indicates women were inferior to men lies in the way that the lottery is conducted. The men in the family were the ones who were responsible for drawing the slip of paper. Women were only permitted to take part unless their husbands were sick or injured. In both stories, the conflicts that occur are the key components to the story.

In Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, and Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, there is a similarity of conflict. In Glaspell’s story, the character of Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster, experiences a person vs. person conflict with her husband, Mr. Wright. The plot of the story deals with identifying how Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster has dealt with the oppression of her husband; whether she has indeed murdered him or is being wrongfully targeted.
In “Everyday Use”, the character of Dee also experiences a person vs. person conflict. However, Dee’s struggle exists not with just one person but expands to include all of her ancestors, reflecting her declaration of feeling oppressed by her past. The plot of this story showcases the struggles of Dee’s family as they deal with her aversion to their way of life. In each of the stories the setting, imagery, and figurative language work together to create a realistic representation that would have made the stories believable at the time they were written, 1929 and 1973, but also in present time.
Susan Glaspell incorporated many things into her short story to enable you to really feel for Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster. She created an atmosphere through imagery, figurative language, and symbolism that managed to give the character a dialogue and a presence when she was physically not there. The story takes place on a cold March day. The wind is biting and you get the sense that everyone is yearning for spring to come. It is a lonely, bleak time of year when one is filled with the desire for warmth and change, much like Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster would have felt in her relationship with her cold, unfeeling husband. Her home is located in a hollow where she is cut off and unable to see anyone on the road, indicating that she dwells in a dark and isolated place such as in a depression. Throughout the story she is called back to memory by several objects that are all the color red: the rocking chair, the one surviving jar of fruit- cherries, and the swatch of cloth that covers the hiding place of the bird in her quilting basket. The color red is often associated with death, loss of innocence, and revenge.
The condition of the rocking chair and the stove also give us a clue about her life…these items are crooked, broken, and falling apart. Things in her life had been falling apart-she herself had been slowly crumbling over the last twenty years. There is a strong use of symbolism to explain her feelings. The jars of fruit which become a shattered mess after the heat has left, they are unable to withstand the cold, much like Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster is unable to stand the treatment from her husband and the lack of communication with anyone else. Also, the quilting patches bearing the uneven stitching suggest her fear and nervousness, an indication that she was struggling with her emotions and feeling overwhelmed. These references are helpful in understanding what Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster had been going through prior to when we are introduced to her in the story at which time she is already experiencing the entrapment of her decisions.
The canary is also a strong source of symbolism and figurative language. Mrs. Wright/ Minnie Foster is described by both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s as having bird-like qualities: she is sweet and pretty, has a beautiful singing voice but also at times was timid and fluttery (14, 16). The discovery of the bird becomes a major turning point of the story as it indicates the roughness of Mr. Wright in its destruction and also gives a very clear picture of how his treatment of Mrs. Wright/ Minnie Foster (who embodied the same characteristics of the bird) destroyed her.
The atmosphere of this story, including the psychological battle that is indicated to have occurred with Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster, and clearly depicted as occurring with Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s is very relevant to today’s time. The story of person vs. conflict pertaining to oppression of women by men and the solidarity between women that results is a topic strongly covered in today’s media, screenwriting, playwriting and fiction.
Although Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster tries to physically smite the thing that is oppressing her, the character of Dee in “Everyday Use” takes a different approach; she tries to physically become something else that will set her apart from that which she believes is oppressing her. The story provides a history of examples in which Dee is shown reacting to her aversion to her family, her home and her heritage. It then focuses on one day when she is expected to be making a visit to her mother and sister. There is a stark contrast between Dee’s frivolous, idealized picture of herself, her mother’s description of her home, her work, and the pride she has for who she is, and the image of her timid, scar-covered little sister, who is likened to an injured animal (2). The description of the families shack creates the picture of a bleak existence; which Dee chooses to focus on, but also contains within it the warmth of the pieces of history that indicate the family’s heritage and is the resting place for the deep and almost mystically simple relationship between Momma and Maggie. Alice Walker’s vivid imagery continues throughout the story so that it easy to imagine that you are standing right next to these characters. The imagery and language used for Dee revolves around uniqueness. She adorns herself in bright, loud clothing, is completely opposite her mother and sister in looks, attitude, education, and beliefs. However, she is still trying to cling to parts of her past. She greedily consumes an ethnic-inspired meal that is served during her visit and acquires two objects of her ancestors. It is with the attempted acquisition of a third item (the quilt), that her intentions are made clear. She is trying to forge ahead and create a new image and existence for herself but she still wants to cling to the craftsmanship and hard work done by her ancestors. She wants to disassemble the butter churn and turn it into a center piece and hang the quilt on the wall instead of using it (5, 7).
The struggle of Dee, like that of Mrs. Wright/Minnie Foster is also one that remains relevant today. The trials of being a teenager and the post-adolescent struggle of defining who you are and deciding how sentimental to be over family/heritage and setting yourself apart through appearance, education and beliefs is also a topic widely covered in music, film, fiction and non-fiction.

Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” 1929. A Jury of Her Peers (Short Stories).
Hadley, MA: Creative Education, 1992.

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” 1973. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. 5th Compact Ed. New York: Pearson- Longman, 2006.

When reading the five short stories for class, I noticed some similarities in them, including similarities in conflict. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has several different conflicts throughout. The conflict I chose to focus on is man versus society. In this case however, it is it is several people versus society. In the story, the town is having their yearly lottery to see who from the town is going to be stoned to death. Jackson never notes why they have this tradition, but every town does it. The lottery seems as though it is what society expects them to do, because it has always been done. The reason there is a conflict between man and society is because some of the women in the town do not think it is right for them to stone another person every year. “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they (the stones) were upon her.” (Jackson, 7) They want to change the way society views the lottery. They do not want to hold the lottery and kill another person every year.
In the story “On the Road” by Langston Hughes, there is another example of a conflict between man and society. When I first read the story, I was unsure as to what really happened. After reading the analyses for it, I soon found out that this was a struggle for an elderly man to fit in with the rest of the world. In this story, Sargeant wants to change the view society has of African Americans. He does not like that they are not accepted by the rest of society. As the story opens, Sargeant is walking around and does not seem to realize that it is snowing outside. When I initially read the story, I thought he was just in a daze, but I later learned that the snow was used as symbolism. Since it was snowing at night, this is meant to show the relationship between black and white. Also, this shows that it was cold outside and Sargeant had no where to go. Reverend Mr. Dorset would not even give him a warm place to sleep because he is black. “I’m sorry. No! Go right on down this street four blocks and turn to your left, walk up seven and you’ll see the relief shelter, said the Reverend.” (Hughes, 1) After he left there, he walked down the street and came to a church. He tried to get inside, but the doors were locked. Sargeant broke down the door just as the cops showed up. He was then placed in jail, but not until after he tore the church down and crushed the police. This shows that times could be changing a little bit for the African American people in the United States. They are starting to stick up for themselves and no longer want to live in the shadow of the white man.
Hughes, Langston. “On the Road.” Something in Common and Other Stories. New York: Hill, 1963. 207-12

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” 1948. The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, 2005.

Shayla Sorrells

American Literature 1915-Present

Mr. Hobbs

February 13, 2007

Blog 1
In our first class, we read several different stories by woman authors as well as a story by Langston Hughes. Each of the stories came from a different point of view and had a different narrator. While Everyday Use was narrated by a woman the other four stories were narrated by someone who was unseen. Each story also contained a major conflict of some sort. Each of the conflicts were different but left the reader in suspense of what was going to happen next. Each of the conflicts were so different that it was hard to find a similarity.
There was only one similarity in conflict that I noticed in two of the stories and that was race. I saw these similarities in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “On the Road” by Langston Hughes. I felt that both of these stories dealt with African Americans trying to find their place in the world. In “Everyday Use” while Maggie and her mother were quit content with the life they lived, Dee seemed as if she was still looking for an identity she could call her own. Hence the major name change and religion change. In “One the Road” it seemed as if Sargeant was also looking for his place in the world. He was held back by obstacles. Because of their obstacles both charaters were left at the end of the story trying to find their identity.

While reading the selected short stories, there were many conflicts brought up in each one. Conflicts, for example, such as man vs man, in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and man vs nature in “On the Road” by Langston Hughes. Each short story was unique in its own right, but they were all similar in the sense that each story had a conflict that drove the plot. In the story “On the Road” by Langston Hughes and the story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty there is a similar conflict of man vs nature.

In “On the Road,” the main character Sargeant is walking around the town looking for a place to sleep. It is snowing and at first he doesn’t notice the cold, but after being rejected a room by the Reverend Dorset, he notices the weather. In about the seventh paragraph it says, ‘For the first time that night he saw the snow...He shook the snow from his coat sleeves, felt hungry, felt lost, felt not lost, felt cold.’ In “A Worn Path,” Phoenix Jackson has to trudge through miles of the countryside to reach town in order to get medicine for her grandson. Throughout the story there are elements such as the woods, hills, animals, and bushes that she has to battle through to reach her destination. In the fifth paragraph it says, ‘The path ran up a hill’ and Phoenix Jackson says, “Something always take a hold of me on this hill-pleads me I should stay.” In the seventh paragraph it says, ‘But before she got to the bottom of the hill s bush caught her dress.” In both of these stories, nature causes a conflict that the character must overcome to reach their destination, and or, their need.

Gender roles play a large part in both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Jordan Langer. Even though the stories are written nineteen years apart, they both take place during a time in which women had no rights and men had all of the power. Gender is a huge conflict in society at this time.

Even though the lottery itself is the ultimate conflict in the story “The Lottery,” gender is an underlying conflict. The male characters in the story have all of the power in this patriarchal society. There are many examples throughout the text which show how obvious male superiority was in this village. Male power starts at a very young age, when the boys gather stones, while the girls stand aside out of the way (1). Mr. Summers needed some assistance, and asks the “fellows” to help out (1). The men choose the paper for themselves, their wives, and children. Mr. Dunbar broke his leg and is unable to attend the lottery. His wife attends, and steps forward to draw for him. She is mocked for doing so, and for not having a grown son to draw for Mr. Dunbar (3). When Mrs. Hutchinson drew the ticket with the blank circle on it, she argued that it was unfair that was chosen (5), Her husband immediately told her to shut up in front of everyone, thus showing who has the power in their household (5). Mrs. Hutchinson’s character struggles to overcome being oppressed by men. The women in the story were faced with the conflict of the lottery itself, while at the same time, fighting for women’s rights.
Although the stories are very different, the female characters in “A Jury of Her Peers” face similar gender conflicts as those female characters in “The Lottery.” Minnie Foster, although she may have murdered her husband, can actually be viewed as the victim because her husband ruined her with his power and control. Even though the main conflict of this story is solving the murder, there underlies a male gender verse female gender conflict as well. The female characters can relate to Minnie and they understand why Minnie took such drastic measures. The male characters in this story show that men beleive females are only good in the kitchen and that they couldn’t possibly be intelligent enough to solve the murder. The women were not invited up to the bedroom to study the crime scene, as though it was a man’s job to investigate. A comment such as “Would the women know a clue if they came upon it?” show that the women were treated as unintelligent and incapable people (7). The women did find the clues, and they solved the mystery, but because they were women, no one had asked.

These stories both have one thing in common. They are perfect examples of how the male gender can be in conflict with the female gender. Society at the time had specific gender roles and women had few rights. Their fight to overcome oppression and powerful males is portrayed in both short stories.

Work Cited
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” 1948. The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, 2005.
Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” 1929. A Jury of Her Peers (Short Stores).
Hadley, MA: Creative Education, 1992.

Amanda S.

“One Against Society”

Within the two stories, “A Jury of Her Peers” and “the Lottery,” there is a similar conflict that emerges between the main character and society. In the story “A Jury of Her Peers", the main character, Minnie Wright, struggles to conceal her husbands death from the authorities that have shown up at her door. This presents a conflict because though she can justify why she killed her husband, she knows that it is wrong. To kill another individual is a wrong against society therefore she knows that she will be punished if she is caught. Thus, in order to protect herself she must "hide" all evidence of the crime that she committed.

In the story "The Lottery" the same conflict arises however in a different manner. In the village it is tradition to place each of the citizen’s names in to a black box, so that one individual's name can be chosen and then stoned to death. The conflict that arises is man against society because man cannot control whose name gets picked in the lottery, only fait. Also, man cannot go against society because this is tradition. Simply stated, the citizens of the village are in conflict against one another because none want to be picked however each wants the others to be chosen. This presents an issue because they know that one will be sentenced to death.

The common thread amongst these two stories is the conflict between the main character and society. The first story illustrates a conflict between Minnie and society, meaning the police. The second story presents conflict between the individuals within the society and society itself. Therefore, the conflict that must be resolved is between the main character and society.

Thomas A.

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*NOTE* The deadline for this assignment has now passed. Comments are no longer being accepted for this exercise/assignment.

Melissa Lingsch Lingsch 1

Dr. Hobbs

EL 267.01- American Lit 1915- Present

25 April 2008

We Are Living In a Material World:
A look at materialism in The Lottery and Everyday Use

In today’s society people are very materialistic. They always want the nicest, newest things, or even something vintage, just to say that they have something someone else doesn’t have. They are greedy people who care more about objects and materialistic things than the people they hurt while trying to get what they want. This also happens in literature. In the two short stories, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and Everyday Use by Alice Walker, there is a representation of materialism in the characters. The characters represent materialism through their actions, by caring more about themselves than others, and by flaunting their material things over others to try to seem better than them. Exploring the differences and similarities in these stories will help show how the representation of materialism affects characters in literature. There will also be examples from the major motion picture, Mean Girls, to parallel materialism in film and help support provided examples from the texts.
The Lottery was written in 1948, Everyday Use was written in 1973, and Mean Girls hit the theaters in 2004. These pieces were all produced about 30 years apart and they all have a common ground that links them together; they all have representation of materialism. This proves that this is not a recent issue, but one that has been present in literature, film, and life for a very long time. Each piece gives the reader/viewer insight to what materialism is and how it affects characters.
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In The Lottery, one may think that there is no representation of materialism, that it is simply a short story about a town that sacrifices a member of their community each year and that’s that. If one closer, there is an underlying representation of materialism. Think about it, each person is so obsessed with not being chosen to be sacrificed in the lottery that they disregard any thought of what may happen to their family members, friends, and neighbors, if they get chosen for the lottery. In a way, each person becomes a living representation of materialism, with their life as the object that they become so greedy to keep. The town as whole is very materialistic in that sense. They have something that the person who is chosen by the lottery doesn’t have anymore; they have the chance to keep living.
During the lottery, everyone in the town becomes very selfish and paranoid. When her husband didn’t draw exactly how she wanted, Tessie Hutchinson turns from a caring mother to a self-absorbed, materialistic character. “Suddenly. Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. “You didn’t give him enough time to take the paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair.” (Jackson 5) Then, when it turns out that it is Tessie that has been chosen to lay her life down by the lottery, it is clear that the people in the town no longer care about their once fellow community member. They become exhilarated that they have something she doesn’t, they still have their lives. They become so materialistic about keeping their lives and killing her so that they can do so, someone even hands Tessie’s son a pebble to throw at his own mother. “They sill remembered to use the stones...And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space...A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.” “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” (Jackson 7) The people in the village
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clearly did not care about what was going to happen to Tessie Hutchinson. In fact, they stoned her to death, but to them it didn’t matter what happened to her as long as they still had their lives.
This part of The Lottery was similar to a part in the movie, Mean Girls. The main character, Cady, was upset that the other character, Regina, was dangling her boyfriend, Aaron, over Cady. Regina was treating Aaron like an object and making Cady jealous that she didn’t have him for herself. So, in Cady’s mind, a scenario played out where the people around them acted like animals as she “fought” Regina to gain possession of Aaron. In both scenarios, from The Lottery and Mean Girls, the characters are acting very primitive to fight for what they want; and in each case the materialistic possession that each character wants to obtain is a life.
Another example for the movie Mean Girls is when Regina takes Cady to her house for the first time. They pull up in Regina’s Lexus in front of a huge mansion. Cady says something along the lines of your house is really nice and Regina responds, “I know, right?” Regina then shows Cady her room and says, “This used to be my parent’s bedroom, but it wasn’t big enough, so I made them switch rooms with me.” The materialism represented in the character of Regina reminded me of the Everyday Use character of Dee, also known as Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Both of which are very materialist and try to take advantage of their parents to gain material possessions.
In Everyday Use, the mother’s memories and thoughts clue in the audience about how materialistic Dee is, well before her character is introduced. Dee was always the beauty of the family, always trying to dress in the best outfits and look perfect; while her sister Maggie, and even her mother, feel inferior to her. They spend the whole day trying to tidy up the house, and even the yard, to make it look good enough to pass Dee’s inspection. “How do I look, Mama?”
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Maggie says, showing me just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse...” (Walker 1) Maggie even puts on a nice outfit to try to impress her sister. The mother continues to
think about Dee, letting the audience learn even more about Dee. “Dee wanted nice things” and “She wrote me once that no matter where we “choose” to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends.” (Walker 2) Dee cares so much about material possession and what others think that she refuses to bring any friends home because she is embarrassed by her mother’s humble abode. So, when she arrives to visit, it’s a bit of a surprise that she has brought her “husband” with her. Soon it is evident though, she came to show off her things, her new clothes, jewelry and man. Dee got out of the car wearing “A dress down to the ground...earrings gold, too...bracelets dangling...” (Walker 3)
Throughout the visit, Dee and Asalamalakim continue to make Maggie and the mother feel insignificant through their actions and comments, but the straw that breaks the camels back is when Dee asks for the quilt. “After dinner Dee (Wanegro) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started rifling through it...Out came Wanegro with two quilts...Mama,” Wanergo (Dee) said sweet as a bird. “Can I have these old quilts?” (Walker 6) The mother explains that she was going to give those quilts to Maggie and that doesn’t go over too well. “But they’re priceless!” she (Dee) was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” Dee was not going to use the quilts her mother and grandmother made for their practical use, as blankets; but, she was going to hang them in her house to show off. She would have something that none of her friends had and she was going to flaunt the quilts in front of them. She didn’t want the quilts for the same reason Maggie wanted them. Maggie would treasure them as a family heirloom while Dee would use
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treat them as just another materialistic possession to show her friends. The mother refuses to give them to Dee and she leaves. Dee being sneaky and coming to visit her mother only for material
gain shows how her character represents materialism. She didn’t care seeing her mother, or if the quilts already belonged to Maggie; she came for a purpose and left when she didn’t receive anything.
During Everyday Use, the mother has hopes that Dee has changed and comes to see them because she wants to, but she ultimately realizes that Dee was still the same materialistic person she has been her whole life. The same can be said in The Lottery. These people have had the tradition of the lottery for so many years that they probably will never be able to change. It’s almost like it’s in their DNA, to the point where their children are born to be these little materialistic beings who are only concerned with their lives and nothing else. It’s like materialism is an epidemic that only gets worse with time. That is very evident in the character of Dee. Her case has gotten worse over time.
All of the examples in this paper tie together to show the representation of materialism in characters in literature and film. They also show that materialism has been as issue in American for many years that only seems to be getting worse; to the point that the representation of materialism floods over into pure forms, such as novels and short stories. Hopefully, people will learn to look inside themselves and realize that it’s the people in life, family and friends, that matter; not the materialistic things.

Works Cited
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. 1948.
Mean Girls. Dir. Mark Waters. Perf. Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. DVD. Paramount
Pictures, 2004.
Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. 1973.
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I put my paper under the category of Shirley Jackson, et al-Conflicts in 20th Century American Literature. The reason why I chose to submit this analysis under this specific category is because Shirley Jackson's piece "The Lottery" is one I focused on in my paper. This analysis helps to provide evidence to the reader of Jackson's use of representing materialism in the form of the town. Also, the use of materialism is a conflict that was dealt with in the 20th century and the literature written then.

Ryenn Micaletti
Dr. Lee Hobbs
American Literature 1915 – Present
22 April 2008
“The Lottery” and the “Allegory of the Cave”: Isolation and Ignorance
A common metaphor represented in Plato’s parable of the cave and Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” is that isolation causes ignorance. In Plato’s parable, the people have been held captive in a cave their entire lives. Their minds have been confined to knowing things they have learned from being inside of the cave. By that, the people are not willing to accept anything else as reality, causing ignorance toward the outside world. In Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, the society which people live in is based on traditional values. These traditional values keep them isolated from advancing with the rest of the world. The people in the story believe in a lottery where a person is chosen to be lapidated or in other words, stoned. They believe the lottery is a civil and normal tradition. Isolation has caused them to not realize that their traditional beliefs are barbarous and out-dated. The metaphor of isolation causes ignorance is not just found in “The lottery” and in Plato’s allegory, but in other literature, such as the novel, The Giver. Isolation of one’s mind causes their perception of reality to be very vague. The story of “The Lottery” and the “Allegory of the Cave” can be identified in our world today.
The reoccurring metaphor, isolation causes ignorance means that seclusion of one’s mind causes lack of knowledge. If one is kept in a house their entire life, and someone tells them that there is an outside, more than likely the person who has lived in the house their entire life, will not perceive the outside to be real. They will not embrace the fact that outside is a part of reality. Isolation does not just have to happen to one person. It can happen to a city, a village, a country or even a continent. An example of this is a group of people who have not been outside of their community or comfort zone. When they are finally exposed to things that do not normally happen in their culture, they usually shun it.
Jackson’s story, “The Lottery”, takes place in a village of about 300 people not very long ago. This village has been holding the tradition of the lottery for many years. The tradition of the lottery is every single person that lives in the village must meet at the square once a year and someone is randomly selected to be lapidated. The person is randomly selected. Everyone takes a small piece of paper that is folded out of a little black box. Anyone who has the single black dot drawn on their piece of paper must be stoned. The children of the village also take part in this tradition. While reading the story, it seems as if all the members of society feel that this is normal and are accustomed to this. Tradition is a major part of this village’s culture. Their belief in this tradition is so strong, that they have been using the same box since the lottery was started. The box they used in this particular story is made from the fragments of the box used before that, which was the first box ever used. In the text it states, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much as tradition as was represented in that black box” (Jackson 2). In the story, Mr. Adams says, “That over in north village they’re talking about giving up the lottery” (Jackson 4). After, he says this, Old Man Warner abruptly responds saying, “Listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll want to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while” (Jackson 4). The way Old Man Warner and the rest of the village acts toward the lottery have shown that they have not advanced as a society.
The lottery’s origin stems from the Pagan ritual of sacrificing a human life for prosperities sake. Like those of the Pagans, the villagers of this story have long forgotten the tradition. The people of this story minds are isolated to think that this is the only way that the land will be fertile. This isolation causes lack of knowledge. The people believe that this lottery is the only way that they will be able to have fertile soil. If they would not isolate themselves, and realize what the other villages are doing in order to receive fertile soil, they will then be able to advance as a society. The ritual and fulfilling this tradition, justifies and masks brutality in this story.
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, he tells Glaucon a story of prisoners who have been imprisoned in a cave with their heads positioned straights and chained into a seating position since their childhood. Behind them is an enormous wall with a fire burning behind it. From this wall, villagers use objects as puppets which become shadows that are seen by the prisoners. The prisoners perceive these shadows to be reality. Plato states, “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of images” (Plato). The prisoners then are released; they stand up and walk towards the light. When they walk towards the light, they experience sharp pains. The instructor tells them that the objects that they have seen their entire imprisonment are just shadows. Not reality. The prisoners are now presented with “real existence” (Allegory).
In the cave, the prisoners are isolated from the rest of the world. They only have grown to know as reality, what goes on inside that cave. The shadows that they saw everyday were their truth. When they were released from the cave, they felt sharp pains (Hooker). These pains came from them being exposed to sunlight and not being able to turn their necks for such a long time. Symbolically, I believe these pains are like the pains people go through when they are first introduced to truths that are unlike their own. When a person has been lied to for a very long time, and has based their beliefs and their lives on these lies, when finally hearing the truth, it may cause a great deal of pain.
Isolation that causes ignorance can be identified in the world that we live in today. In Eldorado, Texas, there is a polygamous sect that lives in a ranch. They practice the teachings of the Fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In this sect they wear clothes that model those of pilgrims. They practice polygamy, which is the practice of having more than one wife at one time. These people live in a ranch that is isolated from the rest of society. This isolation causes them to keep their same traditions, values, and ideas and not experience anything else. These people have been recently charged with child abuse. Children young as 14 years old have been pregnant. These people believe that this is normal and should be going on. These are their truths. They refuse to believe that there is anything wrong with this practice. Our truths, and our reality, are that child abuse is wrong. The sect is society is in an isolated place in Texas away from society (Polygamist).
Another example in literature, other than Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and “The Lottery” is the story of the novel, The Giver. The Giver is about an eleven year old boy named Jonas who lives in a society where there is no pain, fear, war, or hatred. In this society, people are given jobs based on their natural abilities and skills. Children are born by birth mothers whose job is to give birth to children and then take care of them for a year before they are given up to families. All of the children who are flawed and the senior citizens of the society are “released” from the society. The society uses the term “release” ‘aka’ death. They believe that these people go to a happier place, but really they are being put to death (Lowry).
In this novel, this society is isolated along with the people that live in this society’s minds. These people have no recollection of anything that has ever happened to them. No one is allowed in or out of this society. People who disobey the rules of society are released. All of the people who live in this society do not try and change what is going on. They do not know how to think or feel. These people are not exposed to the common things that happen in a regular society. This makes them ignorant to people who have other ideas and do not follow the rules of the society they live in. Therefore the society does not advance.
Isolation causes ignorance is found not only in literature, but also in today’s society. In “The Lottery” and the “Allegory of the Cave”, isolation is found not only in their societies, but also the minds of the people who live in them. In “The Lottery”, the people had their tradition isolate their knowledge from understanding that their tradition of the lottery is out-dated. They do not understand that their tradition does not make the land fertile. It seems that this tradition they practice is very old, and is not useful anymore. Even though they heard other villages were stopping the lottery, they were ignorant to find out why they were. In the “Allegory of the Cave” the people who were kept in the cave their entire lives and isolated from the rest of society, were ignorant towards understanding that their perception of reality was wrong at first. Then, they were enlightened when they walked outside. They experienced pain, like any other person would feel when they are finally enlightened with the truth after such a long time. In today’s world, we still see that it is prevalent among polygamist sects and in Middle Eastern countries. In literature, The Giver is a prime example of the metaphor ignorance causes isolation. Isolation is not always necessarily a bad thing. These people use it to try and preserve goodness and defend their reality. Maybe our perception of reality is wrong because we are isolated from different and causes us to be ignorant towards ideas and people who are different than us. Who are we to say whose reality is right or wrong? We know our reality, and if were told that what perceive to be real and true is wrong, then we would experience the same pain felt as the prisoners in Plato’s Allegory. How do we know that our reality is “real”?

Works Cited

Hooker, Richard. "Plato." Greek Philosophy. 01 Oct. 1996. 19 Apr. 2008 .
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Classic Short Stories. 2001. 22 Apr. 2008 .
Lowry, Lois. "The Giver." Spark Notes. 1993. 14 Apr. 2008 .
"Polygamist Sect." MSNBC. 22 Apr. 2008. The Associated Press Inc. 18 Apr. 2008 "The Allegory of the Cave." The Allegory of the Cave. 16 Apr. 2008 .
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This analysis has been submitted to this blog because it deals primarily with this Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". The short story, "The Lottery" exemplifies my thesis that isolation causes ignorance.

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*NOTE* The deadline for this particular assignment has now passed. Any comments listed below are *ONLY* for the reposting of comments that I specifically asked to be revised or are ones from non-student posters. Any 'student' posts below that missed the assignment deadline will not get credit for the assignment. ~ Dr. Hobbs