Unpredictable Outcomes In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Unpredictable Outcomes: Can opening a door lead to a man’s death? Although not always this drastic, seemingly small choices can have an outcome that is unexpected. In literature, many characters are presented with these types of choices. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” it was Tessie Hutchinson’s choice to attend the lottery. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Judge Steven’s choice was to ignore the townspeople. In Roald Dahl’s “The Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary Maloney’s choice was to kill her husband. The choices one makes can often be more influential than they might think. Every choice made has an outcome that can sometimes be unexpected or life altering to oneself or others. In many stories, characters are faced with choices that,

This shows that Emily had a connection with Homer’s disappearance, as it was the last place he was seen. If this information was given to the police they would have investigated Emily’s house and found Homer Barron’s body, as it was located in a room upstairs “one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years”(Faulkner 56). The housewives may have not thought anything, or said anything of it, due to the housewives describing Emily as weak and harmless which was situationally ironic as in reality she was a cold blooded killer. Yet, if the housewives had not made the choice to keep the “gossip” about Emily’s life to themselves, she may have been caught as a murderer or found Homer Barron while he was alive. In some cases there is no physical outcome to choices, but instead an inner revelation. In the short story “The Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, a pregnant housewife named Mary Maloney is happily married to policeman Patrick Maloney. One evening before dinner Patrick gave Mary news, that we can infer, that he was going to divorce her. Upon receiving news about the divorce, Mary was in shock and discontent, she took some time to process what had