The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

“Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head” (Jackson 567).

I found my mind wandering through the majority of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. However, upon reading the ending I went back and reread the story, fully understanding the reason for its construction. Jackson spends a good part of the story exploring tradition and what it means to the old and new generations. Tradition is something that everyone can identify with in one way or another and is, in many ways, a comforting and safe entity. The lottery seems like a tradition that most of the townspeople are willing to take part in and are excited about. The description of the old box gives the audience a sense of how much pride the town takes in conducting the yearly lottery and how important it is that the tradition stays intact. However, the final paragraphs completely remove the audience from the previously harmless atmosphere as Jackson redefines the idea of tradition. The stoning tradition present in “The Lottery” quickly becomes a morality debate; this morbid act made me think about how Americans view other countries and what they consider to be tradition. Are we to judge and condemn other’s traditions because they do not reflect the ideals and morals of our culture? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” explores this idea and makes us think about how far we would allow “tradition” to go before deeming it cruel and inhumane.

Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is an abstract piece of literature that explores the extremely controversial topic of abortion. During my Sophomore year of high school, my class studied this piece and I remember being stuck by Hemingway’s ability to so cleverly disguise his theme. Abortion is under intense debate today and for Hemingway to have discussed this in the latter part of the 1920’s was quite remarkable. Hemingway also explores gender roles in this story, as the woman is consistently being told that her decision to have an abortion will make her happy and that everything will go back to the way it was before. The female protagonist is, essentially, being pressured into having an abortion because it is the choice that was right for her significant other. The men in Hemingway’s story try to simplify the severity of abortion by insisting “it really is an awfully simple operation” (Hemingway 553) and “not really an operation at all” (Hemingway 553). However, it is common knowledge that abortion is indeed a very serious procedure that leaves lasting emotional distress on a woman which is why she must make that difficult decision for herself. “Hills Like White Elephants” is not ahead of its time but a work that transcends it. Although this piece was written over eighty years ago, the issue of abortion is a huge moral and political issue that continues to be debated.

Young Goodman Brown - Nathanial Hawthorne

“And Faith, as the wife was aptly named” (Hawthorne 539)

Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” contains various religious imagery to convey the theme of good versus evil and reality versus imagination. The character of Goodman Brown has a wife named “Faith”, who is always seen wearing “pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 539). Here, we can infer that Faith was the source of good in Brown’s life; her name alone connects her with religion, light and righteousness while her pink ribbons suggest purity and devoutness to God. However, we also see evil represented as Hawthorne likens a staff to “a great black snake” (Hawthorne 540). The snake is one of Christianity’s most recognizable evil images, as it is generally connected with wickedness and the devil.

Goodman Brown shouts “My Faith is gone!” (Hawthorne 544), a phrase that has a duel meaning. While Faith is the name of his wife, whom he is searching for, it also refers to the fact that Brown feels as though he is losing his religion and giving into his dark side. The concept of good versus evil is an idea that has transcended time and been the struggle of humanity for all of its creation. History has proved that humans have consistently resorted to violence, war and overall sin as opposed to simple goodness and humanity. The character of Goodman Brown is merely the literary expression of the truth of this world and that “Evil is the nature of mankind” (Hawthorne 546).

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Upon completing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, I was immediately convinced that the protagonist was afflicted with post partum depression. Lines such as “Yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman 489) and “I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all; I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see” (Gilman 492) clearly points to a woman who can not handle the pressures of being a mother. Gilman wrote this story in the latter part of the 1800’s, a time when post partum depression was most likely not a widely recognized problem. As a result of the time, the protagonist was treated like a mentally ill patient and not capable of caring for herself. Her husband John forced her into a room that “was nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for the windows are barred for little children” (Gilman 488), thus treating her like a child that could not be trusted alone. Cleary, the isolation eats away at the protagonist’s mental state, making her delusional and insistent that the room’s yellow wallpaper was almost like a living entity that would change shape, size and patterns. However, I believe that the wallpaper is really the protagonist’s child as she personifies the wallpaper by insisting that “she crawls around fast” (Gilman 495) and “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard (Gilman 495). By the end of the story, it is clear that the protagonist has done something awful to her child and not the wallpaper. John’s fainting was most likely a result of discovering his wife’s shocking actions against his child and realizing that his wife had a serious problem that could not be cured by keeping her shut away in a room.

A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a literary example of human cruelty and the effect is can have on certain individuals. Emily was clearly mentally unstable after her father’s death and this instability was only perpetuated by the uncaring people of her town. The character of Emily is seen purchasing “rat poison, the arsenic” (Faulkner 407) while people in her town said nothing but “Poor Emily” (Faulkner 407). It is clear to me that actions such as Emily’s require some inquiry, yet no one thought to ask questions. Instead, the towns’ people rejected Emily; not one person cared enough to investigate her strange behavior but pretended to feel sympathetic for her. Sadly, no one had thought much about Emily during her life except to gossip about her; it was only during her death that people seemed to take notice of a person who had lived her life practically alone. “When Miss. Emily Greirson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly of out curiosity to see the inside of her house” (Faulkner 404). Emily’s funeral was simply an indifferent town coming out to witness the spectacle that her death had turned into. Perhaps Emily’s mental state could have been helped had she received the proper attention following her father’s death. Unfortunately, Emily never fit into her town’s social structure but was instead a burden to it; only through Emily’s death did the town realize the seriousness of her mental state and their inability to recognize it.