The Lottery & Young Goodman Brown - Literature review Example

 Comparison between "The Lottery" & " Young Goodman Brown" The fiction story writers Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne have depicted striking comparisons in their stories "The Lottery" and “Young Good Brown". Shirley Jackson manifested the themes of ethics of public, the danger of blindly following traditions, the randomness of persecution, and in particular the bitter realities of the world in the story “The Lottery". Compared to it, "Young Good Brown" highlighted the inevitable loss of innocence, the fear of wilderness, the weakness of public morality, and the unexpected bitter realities in the cloak of goodness. In the story the Lottery, Shirley Jackson has presented Tessie Hutchinson, Old Man Warner, and Mr. Summers as the main characters. Tessie Hutchinson has been depicted as a woman who is really innocent and confused and a woman who does her chores with so interest that she forgot the sacred day. She made a confession of forgetting the most revered day and stood out from the other villagers as someone different. Whereas, all the other women were arriving while chatting and looking composed. On the day of lottery, the violation of the rules sounded unforgivable. As she joined the crowed like the others, Jackson set her apart as a kind of free spirit who was able to forget about the lottery entirely as she performed her chores. Tessie's distinctive quality is also that only she protested against the lottery which was a medium to stoning someone to death. She also exclaimed against the draw's authenticity but all went vain as she got selected and her own people had started hitting her stones. Old Man Warner has been depicted as the oldest man in town and also the staunch proponent of the traditions. He upholds the beliefs that if the lottery is stopped then soon the people will be living in the caves. Thus, lottery is the only way of stability. This belief shows his superstitious personality. No villager knows the origin of lottery in their tradition, yet they follow it fanatically because of their belief that any change will lead to disaster and thus, it points out the rough consequences of blindly treading on the footsteps of ancestors. Mr. Summers is another central figure of the story who leads the whole lottery. He is the one who makes the black circle that ultimately paves way for anyone's death. The major characters of "Young Goodman Brown" are Goodman Brown, Faith, and the old man or the devil. Goodman Brown has been depicted as a person in a dilemma. He vacillates between his believe that people around him have good hearts and that people's minds have been vectored by the devil. Initially, Goodman believed in the goodness of his father and grandfather, but the devil wiped his belief by saying that he knew both. Goodman also believed in the religious Christian nature of Goody Close, the minister, and Deacon Gookin, but soon the devil proved that Goody Cloyse is a witch and the minister and Deacon Gookin are merely his disciples. After admitting the reality on previous two occasions, Goodman showed his belief in Faith that she is pure and good. For this belief, the devil showed the weak and susceptible nature of Faith at the ceremony. Here Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the loss of innocence and good and evil facets of human being. Faith is another character upon which Goodman religiously believed. Faith is the symbol of serenity and stability of the home. Goodman always believed that if Faith remains pure, his temptation to fight for good can be justified. This is the core reason that Goodman felt sever shock and estrangement from goodness after it was revealed that Faith can also be corrupted. The third main character in this story is the devil who is basically a proponent of corruptive nature of every person. He reveals to Goodman that every villager is susceptible towards corruption including his father and Faith. Comparing both the stories, it can be analyzed that both stories describe moral weakness of human beings and the realities of life which are inevitable. "The Lottery" talks about a ruthless practice of pelting stone to an innocent because it used to be the done by the villagers' ancestors. "Young Goodman Brown" talks about the moral weakness by defining it as inherent in every person. Tessie Hutchinson bears the brutality of life which she did not deserve at all. Similarly, Goodman was shocked to see Fair corrupted and thus estranged himself from goodness. References: Top of Form Hawthorne, N. (1992). Young Goodman Brown, and other short stories. New York: Dover Publications. Top of Form Wood, P. (2007). Lottery. New York: G.P. Putnams' Sons. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More