Essay Assignment #1: Comparison of Story and Plot
An important aspect of literature that makes the difference between a suspenseful story and a dull and predictable story is the dynamic use of plot. The quote by E.M. Forster that expresses this idea is, “The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot.” Over the course of the term there have been a number of stories that have touched upon this quote, those include The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Both of these stories had interesting central ideas that are important to ponder upon, but the path the author took to both central ideas were different. In the story, The Story of an Hour, the author
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Overall, plot is the defining literature tool used to intrigue the reader and make the audience use their sense of memory and intelligence to discover what the end result of the story may be as seen in The Story of and Hour, while the idea of the “story” is used in The Lottery to be a narrative …show more content…
In this story, it discusses the annual event where the entire community comes together to select a name out of a black box, the person who is selected does not when anything rewarding, but is selected to be stoned to death. Unlike in The Story of an Hour, this setting and piece is not built off of the use of plot, but on the idea of telling a story through chronological order. This creates an aspect where the story is predictable and arguably more dull than a story with a plot. This aspect is created through the fact that a reader is able to predict and see what may take place do to the use of chronological order of the story, because unlike The Story of an Hour where the story does not follow a strict timeline, The Lottery must do so to maintain the use of story to make the piece successful. Although the story itself is less suspenseful, the story is successful because it able to express the central theme of asking why people do traditions strictly because their past ancestors have by using chronological
Traditions are based all around us. Today’s society has many traditions like family traditions, holiday traditions, southern traditions, and so many more. Although most traditions are harmless, it is not always best to follow tradition. Sometimes following tradition can be dangerous. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” villagers participate in an annual drawing, and the winner gets stoned. The villagers are blind to how cruel and brutal it is because of their commitment to this tradition and to that society. Fear is what is keeping this village from breaking such an act. The fear of actually giving up this tradition and society is what is keeping this brutal act existent. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a perfect example that following tradition
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an interesting short story taking place in a small town during the twentieth century. The town is getting ready to hold their annual lottery. Readers, however, do not know what the lottery entails until the end of the story where the narrator reveals that the “winner” is to be stoned to death in an unusual ritual. The story shows the danger of following traditions without practical reasoning. By evaluating the three criteria: an engaging or suspenseful plot, a well-structured story, and a satisfying conclusion, readers can thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of the author in creating a well-written story with a strong central idea.
“The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Cornell was a story which Mr.Cornell used 8 aspects of fiction to show his point of view that one who has intellect can overcome one who has intelligence or instinct. The character’s used in the story gave the author a way to make his point of view come clear to his audience. The story uses sequence of events. The plot is how the story goes about. The setting is the surroundings of the story, or where it takes place. The suspense is the temporary holding of the information to keep the reading interested, and to keep the reader guessing and wanting to know what will happen so they will continue reading your story. Foreshadowing is the readers way of telling the ‘future’, in other words the writer is
The Story of an Hour: The first sentence sums up all that is wrong with suspense in this story, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break […] the news of her husband 's death.” In The Interlopers, story pertaining details were introduced as scene-setting, a subtle plot-motivating technique this story abandons. The remaining “suspense" is developed entirely through Mrs. Millard’s hyperactive imagination as she dreams of the future. Her euphoric visions are repeated, and repeated again. An uneasiness is created for the sole reason that most people know that sane people don’t think this way. Ultimately, the lazy suspense building cheapens the ending and while successfully creates tension, dissolves itself by being overly obvious and unvaried.
Plot is very important to a story, novel, or even movies. It helps to make object of the story plain to the reader, and make it as enjoyable to the reader as the author wanted it to be. Plot starts out with an introduction of sorts then runs into the rising action, followed by the main point of the story, then the exposition. When that is over the falling action occurs and finally, the resolution of the story. Willa Cather expresses this very intently in his story “The Sentimentality of William Tavener.” He draws the reader in with a man that is strict with his son and wife who are worthy to participate in the circus in town. Willa tells of the wife trying to convince her husband to allow them to go. Then he surprises the
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and "The Story of the Hour" by Kate Chopin, both have resemblances and appears differently in relation to the elements of writing. Especially, when the authors use foreshadowing to control the demeanors of the stories and add irony to intentionally lie to the reader. Both stories have comparable qualities and stands out from respects to their parts of the story, especially the writers' usage of irony and mood.
Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is about a bizarre ritual performed in a town in which the townspeople proceed to follow every year. In a black, worn box they place all the names of the community. Once all the names are placed inside, Mr. Summers draws a name. After the name is chosen, this member will be stoned to death by the others in the community. Tessie Hutchinson in the story tries to reject the repetitive tradition of the lottery.
Shirley Jackson exploits a true form of human nature in this story. The lottery, a deadly tradition, is a draw for death. The selfish need to survive is shown by all the townspeople, who stone the chosen one to death, be it their friend or family, with only the thought that they themselves survived. Every lottery, the people look at the black box, and desperately hope that they aren’t chosen. It is a gruesome reminder of what they have witnessed and taken part of; the murders of innocent
Shirley Jackson is known for her creative writing and plot twisting stories such as “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery”. Jackson always finds a way to leave the reader somewhat confused and wanting to read more. In both of these stories it is a small town where everyone knows one another but something about each of these towns isn't right. In “The Lottery” it turns out that each year, one family, then individual from that family is chosen to be stoned to death for a sacrifice. Then in “The Possibility of Evil” it turns out that one old woman has been writing rude anonymous letters to the people of the town. In both essays Jackson uses many literary devices that help her create these stories that she is so known for. Some of the literary devices she uses are situational and verbal irony, and mood and foreshadowing. She uses a fair amount of all three of these throughout her short stories.
Plot is a crucial element because it includes the structure of the story from the beginning to the end, how the characters develop throughout the
Traditions are widespread among many different people and cultures; It is an explanation for acting without thinking. Not all traditions are a good thing, though, and blindly following them can lead to harsh consequences. The villagers in a small town in “The Lottery” gather together annually to participate in this tradition, where one person in the town is randomly chosen in a drawing to be violently stoned to death by citizens. It has been around for seventy-seven years and everyone partakes in it. People always attend, showing the importance of tradition amongst the society. However, in the short story, “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses many literary devices to show that traditions are not always meant to be followed.
In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” a small village is preparing for an annual drawing, a tradition carried out for generations. During this ritual, the head of each household draws a blank piece of paper out of a black box. One piece of paper is marked with a single black dot and if chosen, the outcome is having the winner’s entire household draw out of the box. Whoever chooses the black dot out of the household is stoned to death by the entire village. In this instance, a husband wins to which his wife protests, and then she is the ultimate victim who is sacrificed. This story includes many literary elements like foreshadowing, warning of a future event, symbolism, symbols used in the story to represent ideas,and irony, when the contrary to what is expected to happen, occurs. Jackson uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to prove the theme that it is foolish and barbaric to blindly follow tradition.
The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson begins with villagers gathering in the square, between the post office and the bank, to participate in the lottery which is not what it seems like because the story’s surprising ending reveals that Tessie Hutchinson, who draws the slip of paper with the black spot on it is stoned to death when the lottery ends. Shirley Jackson reveals through the use of irony, foreshadow, and symbolism in the story how much people can get caught up in maintaining a tradition that they wouldn’t question their wrongful actions, such as the murder of an innocent human being.
In the short story “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has a very unique twist and different traditions. This story is about how the whole community is coming together for a gathering every once a year. It is not any happy gathering that people might think it would be. The lottery is a tradition that the community has picked up after years back and still follows this tradition. They forgot most of the whole rituals but they don’t forget the important part which is the part of stoning the person to death. The lottery is a cruel thing they do every year and they don’t plan of stopping. This involves the whole community to join in a circle in the middle of town.