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Comparing Story Of An Hour 'And The Lottery'

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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

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