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Essay Comparing The Monkey's Paw And The Lottery

1480 Words6 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story expressed through the theme of apathy, when the community feels no emotion for anyone, that a ritual is more important than a human being, mob mentality, and hypocrisy which is prevalent within the townspeople. It may help learning more about Shirley Jackson to better understand why she wrote such a horrific story like, “The Lottery.” Shirley Jackson moved into a small town, Bennington, Vermont, where she wasn’t accepted within her town which shows she was thinking how cruel people can be. Not being accepted is not the same as being stoned or killed, but it has the capacity for cruelty. Through this, Shirley Jackson is suggesting that we need to examine ourselves and our actions carefully and live our lives consciously instead of

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In the Lottery, the townspeople aren’t aware the reason behind the stoning of an individual. Tessie Hutchinson screams, “It ain’t fair, it isn’t right”(Jackson 630). She believes its unfair for her to be stoned just because its a tradition and ritual. The lottery has been going on for awhile now but the logic for its existence is still unclear to them. They don’t understand the purpose, they just perform because its a “tradition”.

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This concept shows that Jackson is drawing out the town as one that believes in utilitarianism. Old Man Warner states, “There's always been a lottery,” suggesting that the lottery creates a utilitarian dilemma of sacrifice to fulfill tradition. killing a member of their population will net the gain of satisfying a long-standing tradition. further, Mr. Adams is quoted saying, “that over in the north village, they’re talking of giving up the lottery,” conveying that people outside of the town understand that such a sacrifice of a life is not as great as the outcome of a continuing tradition. For the people of the town “The Lottery,” is based in, breaking a tradition that has been standing for as long as they have all were born, is not something that can net them as much gain as simply following town heritage.

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Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. “I tell you it wasn’t fair. “ (para. 61 ) However, everyone else goes along with the lottery as though blind and oblivious to it’s fatal result that would prove to be the end of one of their own lives. All along, utilitarianism appears to be the key driving force behind this lottery.

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The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

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Mr. White made the wrong decisions in chess and also the wrong decisions for his family. Another example, arguably the most important, is the monkey’s paw, “His hand grasped the monkey’s paw and with a little shiver he wiped his hand on his coat and went up to bed” (Jacobs 177). The monkey’s paw symbolizes greed. In the story Mr. White physically holds onto his greed and bad things happen to him. By the end of the story, he let’s go of this greed and the monkey’s paw, allowing fate to flow naturally rather than meddling with it.

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A tradition that stands for bringing communities together can quickly become a tradition that tears communities apart. Jackson continues to tell the story through a series of symbols present throughout. For instance, the black decaying box, from which the lottery is raffled in, closely represents the decaying tradition of the lottery, with the chipping black paint, that once represented the power of authority, is now falling apart, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” (Jackson, 2). With essentials characters and a narrative that caters to foreshadowing the sinister events that are yet to follow.

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The conflict in the story is not only the monkey’s paw but was somewhat Mr. White’s attitude. If he never was that greedy the story would have changed he would have agreed with Morris and burned the monkey’s paw but he didn’t want to do that creating the plot. Any change in the plot could have/ would have altered the course of the story but also altering the theme. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” the downfall of the White family is when they receive the two hundred pounds as a compensation for the son’s death which was actually caused by messing with fate.

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