Analysis Of The Rocking Horse Winner By Shirley Jackson

Conflicts Within and Sympathy Evoked in Two Short Stories: â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner† by D.H. Lawrence and â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson Michael Jason Flowers Liberty University Outline 1. Introduction a. Thesis Statement: â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner† by D.H. Lawrence and â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson are both short stories that present a conflict of society against its characters, but conversely depict very distinctive characters that trigger varying levels of sympathy from the readers. 2. Conflicts a. â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner† by D.H. Lawrence i. Character Conflicts 1. Paul 2. Hester 3. Oscar Creswell 4. Bassett ii. Sympathy b. â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson i. Character Conflicts 1. Tessie Hutchinson 2. Old Man Warner 3.†¦show more content†¦Hester’s desire to keep up with the Jones’, which has left her with no room in her life to love anyone but herself. She is obsessed with luck and blames her lack of it for her lack of money. She puts an unbelievable amount of stress on Paul to prove that he is indeed lucky, ultimately causing his death. Oscar Creswell is Paul’s uncle who joins the horse betting team, which also includes Bassett. When he learns of Paul’s earlier earnings, he encourages him to give a portion to his mother. Oscar values money above anything else and used Paul’s gift for his own gain. Bassett on the other hand, is the gardener and Paul’s original partner in the horse-betting scheme. He helps Paul get started and seems to care for Paul greatly (Lawrence, 1926). Paul arouses the greatest level of sympathy not only because he lived a difficult life and died as a child, but also because died trying to save his family from an evil manifested by his own mother. Bassett seemed to truly care for Paul and kept his winnings safe, which seems to evoke a certain level of sympathy as well. It is difficult to feel sorry for Oscar and Hester because they each played a part in Paul’s death. â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson includes a very serious conflict between Tessie Hutchinson and the village traditions. Societal norms and herd mentality permits villagers to remain unidentified and to, therefore, not be held accountable for their actions, like the stoning of Tessie. When Tessie protested inShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Rocking Horse Winner And The Lottery772 Words   |  4 PagesAn Analysis exploring the irony in â€Å"The â€Å"Rocking-Horse Winner† and â€Å"The â€Å"Lottery† Often times an author will use irony as a literally technique to throw a twist in his story, whereby allowing the outcome of it to be completely different from what the reader expected. In D.H. Lawrence’s â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner† and Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery,† Mrs. Hutchinson and Paul, despite their motivation, are victims of misguided reasoning, resulting in the irony of each character’s demise. In fact, each