Essay - Literary Analysis of Short Stories Domestic Demonism: ''The Lottery' by...

Literary Analysis of Short Stories

Domestic Demonism: '"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson versus "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor

Both "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor make effective use of surprise endings to illustrate the hypocrisies of modern life. In both stories, the main characters take cruel behavior for granted, and this proves to be their undoing. In "The Lottery" a town takes the fact that someone must die to allow ***** crops ***** grow for as a given, even though to the implied reader's outsider perspective ***** horrific assumption makes no sense. ***** "A ***** Man is Hard to Find" a group of squ*****bbling family members on a mundane family road trip suddenly find themselves faced with a serial killer who has been excluded ***** society, and they meet ***** end at his hands.

The *****" is a metaphor for human life in ***** times, filled with a spirit ***** what has ***** called "Jacks*****'s domestic demonism" by critics such as Tricia Lootens of the South Atlantic Review (Lootens 160). "The Lottery" suggests that people often take certa***** cruel aspects of society, like racial oppression and societal injustice, for *****. Some people lack basic necessities because of ***** prosperity ***** others in the developed world, but it is assumed that t***** is valid because *****his is ***** way things always have been. People only protest when their privileges are *****drawn. The ordinary nature of the stoning at ***** ***** of the story, and the wholesome innocence with which it is executed, is underlined by the fact that ***** ***** *****'s children are involved in the event. ***** story begins ***** ***** children gathering stones in ***** pockets. The death is considered a noble civic event ***** everyone accepts, because ***** participates, because it is an accepted trad*****ion no one questions. It is called a civic obligation. "The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers. who had time ***** energy to devote to civic activities."

***** end of Jackson's "The Lottery" is a "bleak epiphany" filled with "points at which evil...flashes out from everyday, real*****tic settings and characterizations" (***** 161). Tessie Hutchinson has evidently lived in the town her entire life, and enjoyed the comforts ***** small, ********** community. She only ********** when her name is chosen: "'***** *****n*****t fair, it isn't right,' Mrs. ***** screamed, ***** then they ***** upon her." Her last words imply the ***** of someone else in the ***** would be 'right' if done in a '*****' way. The idea of a s*****gle person ********** sacrificed for the good ***** the collective is horrifying and even more horrifying because it is not really necessary. ***** characters believe because the lottery has always been t*****e, however *****, it ***** be necessary ***** '*****.' "L*****tening to ***** young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to