Lottery And Hills Like White Elephants: A Literary Analysis

Society has a funny way of pressuring people to act and think in certain ways. We hide from important responsibilities, and we do what everyone else is doing because we don’t want to be left out. We don’t really fight our societies’ system nor do we really question what we’ve always known. We avoid talking about issues, because society says it’s not okay to discuss them. Both The Lottery and Hills Like White Elephants share the same theme; they both avoid difficult topics because of the traditions they’ve always participated in and the beliefs they never questioned. However, they are also different in the sense that in one story the theme is about society’s expectations and in the other, the theme focuses on how to handle an unplanned pregnancy and how sensitive the topic is. Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, takes place during the summer in the late 1950’s. There’s an alternate circle of life that occurs in this town during crop season. Every year, these small town villagers come together on June 27th to participate in a lottery where …show more content…
As they wait at a bar for their train to arrive, the young girl attempts to discuss their unclear situation. The man orders drinks for themselves. She is young, naïve and scared of how to approach the discussion that needs to happen. She ran away with an older man she fell in love with and now she is pregnant with his child. He wants her to get an abortion and yet he doesn’t pressure her to do it either but she doesn’t care about it might do to her, because she is in love with him (352). They discuss the hard topic, in a hush manner because an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock and even abortion has always been two topics that no one ever really talks about. You are looked down upon if you ever bring it up, due to moral or religious beliefs. Hemingway did a great job at reflecting that in this