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A Worn Path By Eudora Welty Analysis

597 Words3 Pages

Times A’changing Everyone has a tradition, a routine they follow and they might not even realize it. Be it the path you walk to school or the way you tie your shoe. If you learned it or have grown up doing something a particular way it is unlikely that it would change. Its human nature to veer away from change. Short stories “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty and “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson are two adequate examples where the changing of times and traditions can be seen in comparison to human nature.. The lottery of today is coveted by many, the cash prize yearned for. Ironically, in Jackson's world, the winner of the town lottery, instead of receiving a quantity of money, is stoned to death by her family, friends, and fellow townsfolk. So was the fate of Tessie Hutchinson. For as long as there has been the town there has been the lottery. “Listening to the young folks… There's always been a lottery” (4). Assumptions could be made that it was created to control the population. The people of the …show more content…

Michael Timko, a professor Emeritus (English) of the City University of New York seems to have the same opinions about this short story. “The author's central focus is on several aspects of human nature, especially the attitudes towards tradition and ritual, and the way humans look upon relationships, familial and others. In the story Jackson is asking the reader to look again at the various characteristics of human nature, especially in regard to the way human beings treat one another in religious, social, and civic contexts” (Timko). The lottery has started to be challenged by other communities, those communities are evolving with the morals that have started to be acknowledged in this time. This change is in essence attacking the traditions of those who still believe in the lottery as essential to their

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