Tradition in The Lottery and Patriotism
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
In my home, the love and value that my family places on my life has always been a security and comfort to me. Reading the short stories "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and "Patriotism" by Yukio Mishima exposed me to rituals where the value of human life is different from that placed on my own. Since these values differed in the stories, the ritualistic sacrifices left me with a feeling of deep sadness. My sadness grows through the authors' use of literary devices. Although both these stories deal with ritualistic death my sadness does not stem from the same issue within both stories. The cruelty of the sacrifice in "The Lottery", and the loss of life between the young couple in Patriotism are the main features of the plot that leave me with this feeling.
In Jackson's "The Lottery", my feeling of sadness is stirred up by the shock of the event that takes place at the end of the story. My devastation of the lottery's ending is aided by Jackson's use of reverse foreshadowing. This device effectively provides me with assurances to aspects of the story that in end are the exact opposite. This is evident in many places throughout the story...