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Selfishness In The Lottery And Young Goodman Brown

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Give me back my shoes! In a family with just girls, this is a phrase that is echoed frequently throughout our halls. Selfishness in big and small scenarios has taken its toll on my family. Even entire families will not speak to each other due to the selfishness of one individual. Each decision a person makes is motivated by either love or selfishness. Selfishness tends to drive families apart and love brings the family closer together. A family unit can consist of blood related individuals, a community, or even a group of friends. Even in modern forms of media, celebrities are undermining each other to get on top of the billboards or into the hall of fame. This example and numerous others, including the use of social media, engrains in each …show more content…

In “Young Goodman Brown”, a man meets with the devil, and his actions are reflected by his negatively changed outlook. “Everyday Use” is a story of a young woman who goes to her mother’s home to take away treasured family possessions. In “The Lottery”, A small community yearly sacrifices one of their own. The consequences of these selfish acts, more times than not, have lasting and unseen impacts. A person’s selfish actions within a family lead the unit to breakdown. When a family member is selfish, he or she does not contribute to the well-being and success of the family. This person does not aid in the day-to-day operations, which molds the family dynamic. Young Goodman Brown thinks of returning to heaven by pondering his relationship with his new wife. Goodman Brown wishes to “cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” (Hawthorne 86). He does not wish to aid his wife, Faith, in going to heaven. Goodman Brown is desperately grabbing onto his wife as a last-minute attempt to slip into heaven …show more content…

Old Man Warner listens to his fellow community members discuss leaving the tradition of the lottery. He responds to their rumors saying, “Pack of crazy fools…nothing’s good enough for them” (Jackson 3). He insults the younger generation as a whole for having a dissenting viewpoint. Being in the lottery for seventy-seven years, old man Warner is comfortable and does not wish to change or even hear the opposing ideas of others. This opinion is vital to the story because it shows the difficulty of many members to change from their “normal” way of acting and thinking. This stubborn behavior does not create the vital attitude of change within the family. If an individual does not turn away from his or her selfish actions, the relationships will continue to decline. Another character that is defensive and combative about her beliefs is Dee. After hearing that the quilts that she desperately wants to have are promised to Maggie, she becomes upset. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts” (Walker 477). Dee blames Maggie for being given the quilts because she will not use them properly or treasure them as much as she would. Dee does not take time to understand why Maggie wants the quilts and what she is using them for; instead, she jumps to a conclusion believing that Maggie will not value them as much as she will. This viewpoint is important because it

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Dee (Wangero) tries to convince her mother that the quilts are much too important to be used, saying, “But they’re priceless!” She then attempts to state that she would take amazing care and would hang the quilts, ‘...as if it were the only thing you could do with quilts.’ Here, she tries to use the persuasive mood of concern, trying to draw concern out of her mother for how the quilts should be cared for. Dee (Wangero) knows that her mother cares about the quilts and wants the best for them, but they have clashing views on how that happens, and Dee (Wangero) tries to tip her mother toward her perspective through appealing to her sense of worry on what could happen to the quilts since they seem to be the only connection presented to their

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(Pg.57, lines 210-211) It is considered one of the main conflicts because of how valuable the quilts are to Maggie and

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She doesn 't know how hard life is with her sister and mother. Dee only cares about what she wants and she talks down on her family. She believes her sister could not use the quilts in a way she thought they should be used. " Maggie can 't appreciate these quilts!" she said.

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(Walker 27). This shows that conflict only leads to negativity, because frustrated, Dee yells at Mama about how Maggie would ruin the quilts that she wants for herself. This conflict between Mama and Dee shows how people should initiate an effort not to start conflict because it only drives people farther apart, rather than sticking together. Another conflict

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In the story there are a lot of clues that say that the lottery is about tradition, like the lottery itself. The lottery is a tradition that “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born” Paragraph 5: Line 1. According to another statement by Old Man Warner “Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery,” Paragraph 14: Line 17. The two quotes show that the tradition of the lottery in the town outlives the oldest member of the town.

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In the story, when Mrs. Adams tries to explain to Old Man Warner how other places have quit the tradition of lottery it makes Old Man Warner angry. He expresses, “Nothing but trouble in that”, which is the reflection of how things work in our world (Jackson 7). Old Man Warner being stout about that symbolizes how traditions no matter good or bad are passed on strictly to younger generation by older generation. Human nature is to teach all their beliefs to their children and strictly imply it good or bad. When the younger generation tends to rebel, it often results in disappointment and disagreement among the older generation.

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Sarnowski describes Maggie by stating, “She ekes out an existence on the family farm and has neither the intelligence nor the physical attributes of Dee/Wangero” (Sarnowski 278). This statement shows that Maggie lives a conservative type of farm life, and due to this lifestyle, she is less intelligent than her sister. This statement also shows how the character Maggie is described in a sense as inferior to Dee because of her lack of education and physical attributes. Maggie’s traditionalist ways show, however, when she tells her mother, “"She can have them, Mama,” … "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts"” (Walker 6).

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Dee thinks that since Maggie was taught how to make quilts that she doesn’t need or want them because she can make her own. But these quilts mean much more because they were made by hand by their grandmother and mother out of old clothing from different ancestors. Another item that Dee doesn’t appreciate is the churn that is very old and still in use. As Dee stats, “I can use the churn top as a counter piece for the alcove table”. She sees the pieces as a decoration and not as a valuable item that can produce food for the family.

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“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants.

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Every new generation brings about change, and this was challenging and deemed as unnecessary to the cohorts of the past. Such as in the case of the family relationship in this short story Everyday Use. Mama who is the narrator seems to be struggling with having to choose between her two daughters who have tremendously different personalities and views. Maggie and Dee, are sisters who are as opposite as night and day. Dee brings home generational changes from the urban college life, she even changes her name.

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Maggie, quiet and reserve, desperately wanted the quilts too. Mama eventually makes the decision to give the quilts to Maggie. Mama’s decision causes an uproar with Dee, who begins to cry that she deserves them more as Maggie will not preserve them. Maggie nearly gives into Dee’s demands, possibly because she too feels she does not deserve them, but is stopped by Mama, who stands her ground.

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With determined ambitions and education resulted in a lack of sensibility in heritage, history, and self identity, which only family can implement. Dee presents herself almost as a weird, intimidating individual foreign to what her family has ever known. The conflict that Mama and Maggie are confronted with is that Dee is does not care about anything but herself. When being rejected to have possession of the quilts Dee stated “But they’re priceless! She was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper.”.

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1220 Words | 5 Pages

Adam’s and Old Man Warner’s discussion about the idea of giving up the lottery. Old Man Warner states that “there’s always been a lottery” (Jackson 142). The inference of Old Man Warner’s words and tone suggests that there will always be a lottery, and that it should always remain, that it is wrong to question its existence. Given the violent nature of the lottery’s results and its enduring tradition throughout generations of participants, each succeeding generation obviously grows accustom to the violence and brutality it calls for. The children, for example, readily prepare for the occasion by amassing “a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and [guarding] it” (Jackson 139).

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Old Man Warner conveys the idea that the lottery is essential for the villages progress. Accordingly, this statement speaks to the importance of a useless and harmful practice in the minds of the villagers. The murderous tradition of the lottery is a normality for all the villagers, especially the children and displays their blind acceptance of an idle practice. When the winner of the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson, is revealed, “ The children already [have] stones. And [...]

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These quilts are a ways of honoring her African American heritage and to be given these was very significant in their culture. For once Dee sees the historical background because of the stitching and material used, but doesn’t find any use in using them. Dee is going to try and convince her mom to let her keep the quilts, when Dee says, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” (Walker 721) and “You just will not understand. The point these quilts, these quilts!”

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