Essay Example on The Lottery & The Rocking Horse Winner: Symbols, Family & Irony

In the "Rocking Horse Winner" and "The Lottery," the authors employ the use of symbols, the family theme as well as irony to convey a message through the story.

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1. Introduction

(Summary of "the lottery") a small village in the rural area holds an event referred to as the lottery, and all the families in the town are supposed to get involved. For each family, one member will pick a slip of paper from the drop box. However, Bill Hutchinson picks a slip from the box, but it had a black dot on it, which upsets his wife.

(the summary of "rocking horse winner") the story is about a boy named Paul, who lives with his family consisting of a mother, father and two younger sisters. However, the family leave above their means since the money streaming in is not enough for sustaining their lifestyle, causing the financial problem, and this leads to their mother wanting additional or more funds.

Thesis statement: Although the short "The Lottery" and "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by Shirley Jackson and D.H Lawrence correspondingly have a variety of similarities; they are also diverse in many ways.

2. Family Theme

The family plays a significant part in the lottery. In the village where they hold an annual lottery event, all the family members must be in attendance. However, the family bond starts to shatter when it is time to stone the victim.

In "The Rocking Horse Winner," there exists an unhealthy or hostile relationship between the son and mother. The mother tried to partaking the role of the father by being the family breadwinner. However, as Paul tries all means to win the love of his mother, he goes mad in the process.

3. Irony

The irony is seen from the title of the story "The Lottery," from this title, a person would think that in the end, someone will win something great while actuality the winner gets stoned at the end.

In "The Rocking Horse" the irony is seen when Paul thinks that my winning races and giving the maybe to his mother, she will be happy. However, the contrary happens, his mother becomes greedy and want more and more money. She is still unhappy no matter the amount Paul gives her.

4. Conclusion

The lesson learned from the short story lottery is that all the traditions should be upheld, and some should be changed because they hurt people instead of inspiring togetherness.

While the lesson learned from "The Rocking Horse Winner" is that love is more important than material things. The family should come first.

Fiction Essay

Compare and Contrast Between "The Rocking Horse Winner and The Lottery"

Although the short "The Lottery" and "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by Shirley Jackson and D.H Lawrence correspondingly have a variety of similarities, they are also diverse in many ways. The setting of the lottery is described to be in a small village in the rural area. The town usually conducted an annual event known as the lottery, which has been a tradition for years. During the lottery event, everybody in the community must be in attendance and must pick as a slip from the black box as well. However, at the end of the event, one family would lose a member of their family. However, in "The Rocking Horse Winner," it features a family of five, the father, mother, Paul, and his two little sisters who are living above their means (Lawrence, 1966). It is a typical high-class lifestyle with low-class earnings, which proves to be problematic for the family causing Hester the mother to desire more funds. Paul is an anxious boy who would do anything to get more money for his mother to make her happy once more. However, they are unaware like the Hutchinson's family in the lottery that they will lose a member of their family as well. In the two short stories, the authors employ the use of irony, symbols, and the family theme to convey their message throughout the story.

In the short "The Lottery" by Shirley, the family theme is portrayed differently as compared to "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence. The family in the story, the lottery was presented as being selfish. In this story, family meant absolutely nothing in case they had to choose between the family and oneself. Once everyone had picked the slip, and they were open from the crowd, it could hear that "it is Bill, Hutchinson." Bill worn. However, instead of Bill taking the win and making the sacrifice for the family, he let his wife suggest that they pick once more, and this time Tessie his wife worn, and she would be stoned instead. By allowing his wife to be stoned in his place represented selfishness and that family had no meaning for him. The family theme in "The Rocking Horse Winner" is portrayed by the mother and son's perspective. Paul's father and the head of the family are absent in the story, and this leads the mother Hester to take up the role of breadwinner. However, the little income that the family had would not cater to the luxurious life Hester wanted, and this made her very unhappy. Paul cared for his family, unlike Mr. Hutchinson. The love for his mother leads him to give her money to make her happy anonymously. Throughout the story, there were numerous quotes that "there must be more money, Lawrence," which portrayed Hester's greed. Regardless of the family theme portrayed differently in the story, the two authors ended up with a dead protagonist.

The irony is brought out in by the death of a protagonist. In the short story, the lottery, the title of the story in itself, is ironic. In real sense, when an individual win the lottery, it is something to be celebrated. The term lottery represents fortune, joy, and celebrations, while on the contrary, in the story winning a lottery is the worst thing that can happen to the family (Jackson, 2001). Throughout the story, the author did not hint or review what the winner would revise, and when at the end, the winner was stoned, it was very ironic. While the irony is portrayed in "The Rocking Horse Winner" through Paul's desire to winner his mother's love and help support the family. This is ironic in the way that Paul thought that he could make his mother happy and, at the same time, fulfill her needs by winning her money in the horse race. However, instead of fulfilling her needs and making her happy and at the same time, winning her love only made his mother greedier, and this led to his death.

In the end, both the authors ended their story with "the death of the winner." The use of irony and family theme was evident throughout each of the stories. In "The Lottery," the lesson was traditions are good, but some of the cultures can be deadly, and it is up to the reader to decide on whether to uphold some of the customs or try to change them. On the contrary, the message or the lesson that can be learned from "The Rocking Horse Winner" is that love cannot be bought with the material things. The two authors' works were similar in a way but also different at the same time.

References

Jackson, S. (2001). The lottery. Taharlev. Yhe Cool Collection: An Anthology for Today's Teenager. Israel: Eric Cohen Books. Retrieved from http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/ASD-S/1820/J%20Johnston/The_Lottery_with_questions_Shirley_Jackson.pdf

Lawrence, D. H. (1966). The rocking-horse winner. Dramatic Publishing. Retrieved from https://interestingliterature.com/2016/12/a-summary-and-analysis-of-d-h-lawrences-the-rocking-horse-winner/