Lottery short story research paper

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SHIRLEY JACKSON: TWISTING TALES

Author of one of the world's

most famous short stories,

"Tbe Lottery," Shirley

Jackson (1919-1965) was

a master of twist ertdings

and seemingly light tales

that hid a dark underbelly

of human cruelty and mad-

ness. In her story "One

Ordinary Day, Witb Peanuts," a genial little man,

Mr. Johnson, leaves home one morning to carry out

one good deed afrer another. He smiles kindly at

strangers on the street, hands out peanuts and candy

to passersby, gives lunch money to a be^ar, and

helps a young couple frnd an apartment. Every life

touched by Mr. Johnson is bri^nened or improved.

But, at the end of his day, Mr. Johnson returns

home, to his wife. This is how the story ends:

SHIRLEY JACKSON

FROM THE OCTOBER 1965 ISSUE rs. Johnson came out of the kitchen and kissed him; she was a com-

Ifortable woman, and smiling as Mr. Johnson smiled. "Hard day?" she asked.

"Not very," said Mr. Johnson, hanging his coat in the closet. "How about you?"

"So-so," she said. She stood in the kitchen doorway while he settled into his easy chair and took off his good shoes and took out the paper he had bought that morning. "Here and there," she said.

"1 didn't do so badly," Mr. Johnson said. "O:>uple young people." "Fine," she said. "1 had a little nap this afternoon, took it easy most

of the day Went into a department store this morning and accused the woman next to me of shoplifting, and had the store detective pick her up. Sent three dogs to the pound—^owknow, the usual thing. Oh, and listen," she added, remembering.

"What?" asked Mr. Johnson. "Well," she said, "I got onto a bus and asked the driver for a transfer,

and when he helped someone else first 1 said that he was impertinent, and quarreled with him. And then I said why wasn't he in the army, and I said it loud enough for everyone to hear, and 1 took his ntimber and I turned in a complaint. Probably got him fired."

"Fine," said Mr. Johnson. "But you do look tired. Want to change over tomorrow?"

E.E. CUMtilNGS: BREAKING RULES Edward Estlin Cummin^ (189^1962) experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax to create a unique new form of poetry. The poem on the right has no title at all.

E.E. CUMMINGS

THE OCTOBER 1972 ISSUE his childhood on, E.E.

f Cummlngs wrote poetry in praise of all that is living—above all, nature and the individual self. He also bitterly satirized any attitude or person that he believed prevented man from being himself, such as totalitarianism, progress, security, and scientific explanations. Another convention he rejected was ordinary punctuation—not to shock gram- marians, but to give language the freshness and spontaneity of life.

when seqjents bai^ain for the right to squirm and the sun strikes to gain a living wage— when thoms regard their roses with alarm and rainbows are insured against old age

when every thrush may sing no new moon in if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice —and any wave signs on the dotted line or else an ocean is compelled to dose

when the oak hegs permission of the hirch to make an acorn—valleys accuse their mountains of having altitude—and march denounces april as a sahoteur

then we'll believe in that incredible unanimaJ mankind (and not until)

Literary Cavalcade MAY 2005 21