The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Destructors by Graham Greene - Essay Example

‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘The Destructors’ by Graham Greene. Introduction An American classic,lotteryis a one of the most horrific terror stories set in a small town of modern America. It is a story about how a community in the name of sacrifice and rituals devours one amongst them each year. The Destructors, on the other hand is a story witha powerful depiction of human nature. The protagonist Trevor (T) is just stepping into the selfish adult world. The story is set in the post WWII period and is about a gang ofchildren who indulge in mindless destruction leaving their innocence behind.Both these stories, though dealing with different settings and plots, have a commonality in the way the dark side of the human nature is depicted. This thesis is explored by comparing and contrasting the various story elements in the two stories. THEME The most important and common theme in both the stories is the dark side of human nature. Apart from this ‘The Lottery’ also has some other themes: consequences of mindless traditions and result of misguided leadership. For example, the character of Old Man Warner who has been part of the lottery for the seventy seventh time seems to be proud of doing so. Not only that, he calls people in other places who have quit lottery as ‘Pack of young fools’. He is the oldest man in the town and a pseudo leader protecting the ritual. Another theme that emerges from The Destructors is: senseless destruction. The ‘Wormsley Common Gang’ could have used Mr. Thomas’s money, but instead choose to burn it, symbolic of senseless destruction. CHARACTER BEHAVIOR SIMILARITIES There is one thing about the characters which is common in both the stories i.e. conflicting behavior. For example, Mrs. Delacroix from ‘The Lottery’ talks in a very nice and friendly manner to Mrs. Hutchinson (the victim) when the lottery is just about to begin. However, towards the end of the story when stoning begins she is the one who picks up a stone large enough to be held in two hands to stone her very own friend to death. Similarly, in “The Destructors” while the boys are destroying Mr. Thomas’s house, they ensure that Mr. Thomas is safe and give him food and blanket before locking him in his own bathroom. This depicts quite a contradictory behavior. On one had the characters seem to be engaged in destruction and on the other hand they are trying to ensure safety and are being nice to the victim. DIFFERENCES A very distinct and difficult to digest fact about ‘The Lottery’ is children’s eagerness to participate in the lottery. In the beginning of the story, children are said to be collecting stones as if eager to start the cruel process. Looking at the way children react to cruelty, this seems strange and disturbing and points to the fact how children can be easily brainwashed. In this case by the family/society to participate in stoning Behavior of the protagonist‘T’in ‘The Destructors’ seems to be relatively logical though. It is the post WWII era after London was destroyed by heavy bombing. T’s father has now become a clerk from an architect and there is gloominess everywhere. At the age of 15 after experiencing all of this a young impressionable mind may engage in destructive activities.STYLE Despite a painful and horrifying ending, ‘The Lottery’ seems to be very detached. There is hardly any empathy shown towards ‘Tessie’ who is stoned to death, either by the family or by the villagers. After killing someone in public the villagers will go back to their work and continue with their daily routine as if nothing has happened. In the first paragraph Shirley writes, "The whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner." This seems a distinct style of writing where a sensitive subject is written in a very detached manner.A glimpse of Greene’s unique style can be seen in character placement. The characters in the story are people who need to choose between being good or bad as they are capable of doing both. For example, members in the gang are pretty young and at their age they are not supposed to be members of a destructive gang, however, they choose to be evil over good. SETTINGS Both the stories have very different settings: The Lottery talks about a summer day when ‘the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green’. Contrarily, The Destructor creates picture of a city ruined by war and which has grey skies and a dull atmosphere. CHARACTERIZATION The Lottery is more an event driven approach, whereas, The Destructors is a protagonist driven approach. There are some startling differences in characterization too in both the stories. The Lottery despite dealing with a very strong subject of mindless ritualization and having many characters does not have a single strong character. With the exception, of ‘Tessie’ (the victim) there is no one in the crowd of almost 300 people to oppose the stoning. Not even Tessie’s husband ‘Bill’.Mr and Mrs Adams do talk about lottery being stopped at other places, but that could hardly be called as an opposition to something as cruel as stoning. This very well explains the fact that how even good individuals when decide to act only as part of a group are capable of doing huge mistakes in the pretext of group customs or rituals. Contrary to this, Trevor who is just 15 has the courage to change some of the group customs. The Wormsley Common Gang had never broken a house. The day Trevor declared his plan of destroying Mr. Thomas’s house, he wasn’t even the gang leader. Voting for the day was already over and the gang had voted for: ‘take buses at random and see how many free rides could be snatched from unwary conductors ‘. This is when Trevor comes in and convinces everyone to execute his plan. This is a pretty bold move on Trevor’s part. One similarity that is noticed in characterization though is both the writers have shown their characters behaving differently than what they are supposed to at their age. For example, most of the characters in ‘The Lottery’ are adults, however, they do not behave like one. None of them question a customary ritual of killing someone each year. They behave as obedient children of aclass, whose teachers are people like Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves and Mr. Warner.Rest of people are like obedient students and did exactly what has been told to them. Similarly, the kids in The Destructors don’t behave like kids. They are part of a street gang which children at that age usually are not. When Trevor is introduced in the beginning of the story, Greene writes ‘there were possibilities about his brooding silence that all recognized. He never wasted a word even to tell his name until that was required of him by the rules’. This characteristic of Trevor one of like an adult. Not just any grown up, but of a shrewd adult mind which is highly calculative in doing and saying things. CONCLUSION All human beings have a dark side. Things like education, society and culture are ways to control this dark side. However, in both the stories the evil overtakesgood. In The Lottery the so called society which is supposed to help keep our negative side in check is shown to have prompted killing a person in the name of a barbaric ritual. The Destructor shows how break down of a society (by means of war) impacts a group of young children and how they succumb to the wicked in them and destroya house for no reason. REFERENCES eNotes (n. d.). The Lottery: Introduction. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/lottery/ shmoop gamma (n.d.) The Lottery Characters. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.shmoop.com/lottery-shirley-jackson/characters.html shmoop gamma (n.d.) Tools of Characterization. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.shmoop.com/lottery-shirley-jackson/characterization.html North Vancouver School District, Internal Directories . “The Destructors” by Graham Greene. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.nvsd44.bc.ca/Sites/pdf/4/4-1773-5637.pdf Bookrags, The Destructors Study Guide. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-destructors/ Classic Short Stories.The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 from http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html Greene, G. (2011).The Destructors.Retrieved on July 15, 2011 fromhttp://subrosa.umwblogs.org/files/2009/03/the-destructors.pdf Jackson, S. (1948, June 26). Fiction: The Lottery (abstract of story)". The New Yorker. Retrieved on July 16, 2011 from: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1948/06/26/1948_06_26_025_TNY_CARDS_000214921 Read More