Essay Comparing The Monkey's Paw And The Lottery

David Pevzner

ELA Block 1

Literary Essay

January 23, 2023

The Lottery vs The Monkey’s Paw

The enlightened scholar, Noah Sharon, once uttered, “Man’s primitive roots lead him to greed and lust which are the sole roots of the familiar states of regret and remorse”. This quote rings true throughout the short stories “The Lottery” and “The Monkey’s Paw” by Shirley Jackson and W.W. Jacobs respectively. Jackson’s short story tells of a small rural town in which the people have a unique tradition in which they select a couple of people annually to be stoned to death. They do this on account of following tradition, and they fiercely resist any proposal for change. As the story progresses and the residents of the town who once fiercely supported the

In “The Lottery”, this is clearly shown when Old Man Warner, who just minutes ago was criticizing other towns in their area getting rid of the lottery, gets picked to be stoned and begins arguing. “It’s not the way it used to be. People ain’t the way they used to be.”(Jackson, 67) he said in defiance. As can be seen, when someone isn’t chosen for the lottery themselves, they will not stand up and try to end such a cruel tradition. They only care about it being unfair when they’re in danger themselves. This leads them to strongly regret ever being selfish and supporting such a thing before they got chosen, which is the theme of the short story. Moreover, also in “The Lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson said,“It isn’t fair,”(Jackson, 74) only after she herself was chosen for the lottery. Yet again, we see how people do not stand up against this homicidal tradition when others are at risk of dying, but as soon as it comes to their own lives, they say something. Following them realizing that they’re not immune to such a tradition themselves, they become remorseful for not standing up before which demonstrates their selfishness and the resulting regret. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the same theme is shown through the description of the reaction of the White family following their realization that their greed ended up killing their son. “There was no reply; the old woman’s face was white, her eyes staring, and her breath inaudible; on the husband’s face was a look such as his friend the sergeant might have carried into his first action.”(Jacobs, 91) the text read. We can conclude from this, that the White family feels great regret once they come to understand that the monkey’s paw only grants compensation for what it takes away. They clearly wish they hadn’t been greedy and tempted fate and had instead been satisfied with what they had. This emphasizes the fact that greed is one of the