Essay Comparing The Lottery And Hunters In The Snow

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will”, is a quotation from Charlotte Brontë’s famous novel Jane Eyre on how everyone should be free to think and feel what they want. Themes such as autonomy and independence, which are encouraged by this passage, are not present in the minds of characters from both “Hunters In The Snow” by Tobias Wolff and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Both short stories focus on the idea that the characters have forgotten how to have thoughts and feelings of their own, and this could be seen as their downfall. It is hard to determine the incentives of people’s behaviours if they are just following what the rest of society is doing. The motivation of someone’s actions can …show more content…
At first glance, the annual hunting trip which Tub, Frank and Kenny take part in has what the reader would expect to be a more obvious element of danger than the lottery that the townspeople hold. Their intention is to kill animals for sport. They have been going on this hunting trip for years, and up until now, no one has gotten hurt. It is appropriate that as the relationship between these characters has gotten mores strained, someone gets shot as a result to their carelessness. On the other hand, “The Lottery” is not a story the reader would initially expect to include violent actions. The majority of the story is fairly unrevealing about this tradition within these towns, until close to the end. The realization that the tradition is to have families draw papers to decide who will be stoned to death makes one wonder why such an annual event is still something these characters want to take part …show more content…
Kenny in “Hunters In The Snow” and Tessie Hutchinson in “The Lottery” are characters that completely contradict each other. To begin, Kenny is seen as the character in the story that holds the power over the others, and Tessie is the character who tries to defy the norm and shift the power. The irony with Kenny is that he is the one who is shot when he is seen to be the man in charge, or the bully of the group. Alternatively, Tessie tries to stop the lottery, but no one else wants to discontinue the tradition. Fear of venturing away from it causes everyone else to conform to society and continue on as they always have. The irony is that the one character that is looking for change is the one to be killed. When Tessie is chosen to be stoned to death, the last hope for change is crushed, just as Kenny’s power is lost when he is