Similarities Between A Rose For Emily And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Authors write books for many reasons - motivation, entertainment, enjoyment, education, and the list continues. All novels and short stories also contain a message to the reader called the theme and authors can create more than one theme in a novel or short story. In both “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson and “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner the authors introduce many themes to the reader through conflict and interactions between characters. One main theme that both short stories share, is how tradition affects different generations.
Tradition is defined as customs of beliefs that are handed down from generation to generation. In “The Lottery” , the tradition being handed down is the process of the lottery where the town sacrifices …show more content…
Throughout the story it becomes clear to the reader that the family had been struggling financially for years before the father passed away; however, neither Emily nor her father were willing to accept the change. When city authorities came to ask for her unpaid taxes she had nothing to give them except a deal that the past sheriff had made with her father. The old sheriff, that had passed away in the prior years, had known of the families financial struggle and gave them a tax break so they could continue living in their beautiful home in town. However, once the town heired a new sheriff there was no written agreement that stated the the Grierson family was tax exempt, so after sending the forms multiple times city officials showed up on Emily’s door step. Her only answer to them was, "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson." (). Emily even refused to call the new town sheriff her …show more content…
She struggled immensely with father's death, “She told them (the women who came to help her with her recently deceased father) that her father was not dead. She did that for three days,...” (). By accepting that her father had died, she would be accepting a change that she was not mentally or physically able to handle. Many people going through tough times in his or her lives like losing a loved one or other traumatic events, experience some variation of denial. It is human nature to want to resist such a change in everyday traditions and routines but eventually our bodies and minds are able to adapt and move on in life. In Emily’s case she was never truly able to accept her father's death. She separated herself from the rest of society for weeks, months, and sometimes even years at a time. With the only outside contact being her servant and her lover, she was shielded from any additional changes in her tradition, almost as if she was stuck in her own world. She even keep the corpse of her lover in the house with her avoiding the judgments that would be made from the