In Graham Greene’s, “The Destructors,” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the author
designs a story made with fable, sharpness, and aloof actuality, as well as established folklore,
that disguises wickedness, which inevitably shows how individuals unseeingly adhere to
heritage.
This is an unbiased essay whose main unprejudiced is to correctly and genuinely differentiate
and dissimulate a couple of highly famous assumed structures. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson,
and The Destructors by Graham Greene. Core primary efforts of two separate authors, the small
narratives reveal comprehensible rules of contrast and analogs as will be explored in this paper.
The paper will focus on the topics examined by the authors in the pair of tales to compare them.
After WWII London is in ruins, Wormsley common car park is one of the only places not
destroyed. Blackie and his gang go to the park to hang out. Mr. Misery as the kids know him is
one of the only people with a home left. Trevor a member of the gang works his way into Mr.
Misery’s heart. He is then able to leave a once-standing house devastated by disaster with him
and his gang's destruction. The Lottery begins on June 27th a warm summer day. Around 10 am
the townspeople begin to meet in the town square for a lottery. Although everything seems
festive at first it soon appears that no one wants to win the Lottery. The suspense later greatens
with surprise when you find out who is going to win the Lottery and what happens to her. The
Lottery takes place in a small USA town in Vermont. The Lottery takes place on June 27th,
although no year is given, we can only guess it was during the 1940s. This is because the story
was published in 1948. This story just like the destructors was published after WWII. The
destructors were in the mid-1950s. It was just after the German bombing. Just like the Lottery, it
takes place after WWII.
Townspeople in a small town in Vermont gather for the Lottery. Normally the Lottery takes
days but in a town of 300, it is underway within one day. Since school has just ended the kids go
around gathering stones. Mr. Summers runs the lottery he is the one that arrives in the town with
a black box. The black box isn’t the original black box. He mixes up the papers so the
townspeople can draw them. Tessie Hutchison joins the crowd and is frustrated because she has
forgotten today is the day of the Lottery. Mr. Summers reminds everyone that the head of the
family is who draws names for the family. Word gets around that Bill Hutchison has won the
Lottery and then Tessie Hutchison complains that it isn’t fair because he didn’t have a fair
chance. When the papers are opened, they find out that Tessie has drawn the paper with the black
dot on it. The villagers run toward Tessie with stones. The Destructors begins by introducing us
to the Wormsley gang, it is a story about boys ranging from age nine to age fifteen. These boys
live in a tough area in London and spend their summer pulling pranks. The gang is led by a boy
named Blackie, and they have just allowed a new member named Trevor. Trevor carries himself
better than the other boys and is often picked on, however, he goes by the name T. One day T
shows up late and Blackie interrogates him about where he has been. That is when he reveals that
he has been around Old Misery’s home. This is when the boys devise a plan to destroy Old
Misery’s home. The home withstood the bombing of Germany, but they are not going to let it
remain standing. Upon Old Misery’s departure for Bank Holiday, they decide to go in and wreak
havoc. He returns only to get locked in his bathroom unaware of what is going on. It's not until
the next morning when a man comes to get his car that he feels something tugging at his back
fender. He hears Mr. Misery and frees him from his bathroom. The main characters in both
stories play important roles. In The Lottery the Hutchison’s and Mr. Summers play an important
role. In The Destructors Blackie, Mr. Misery, and Trevor as well as the gang play an important
role. You can learn that strange things happen in groups from both stories.
The above-mentioned stories have a rather twisted point of view. Both derive pleasure from
seeing people suffer. In the story, The Destructors Mr. Misery as the boys call him must suffer by
having his house ruined just because he was kind enough to allow Trevor to tour it. In the story
The Lottery Tessie must suffer just because she wins the lottery and complains that it isn’t fair.
The stories both leave you excited to see the endings and then end still leaving you wondering.
You still want to know what Tessie won in the Lottery, and you still want to know what Mr.
Misery did after he was freed from his bathroom. I feel that the stories could have ended better.
The story of The Lottery ends with the townspeople converging on Tessie and presumably
killing her with stones. The story of The Destructors ends with Mr. Misery getting free from his
bathroom. In both stories, you're left sitting on the edge of your seat. I find it interesting that in
both stories’ small towns and/or villages destroy something good. You're left wondering at the
end of both stories if there is ever going to be a series with a happy ending.
REFERENCES:
Arp, T. R., & Johnson, G. (1970). Perrine’s Literature: Structure, sound, and sense.
https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB17185069
The Lottery vs the Destructors Essay examples - 1046 Words | Bartleby. (n.d.).
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Lottery-vs-the-Destructors-P3JEB3Y2MJ
Compare and contrast the Destructors and the lottery | Bartleby. (n.d.).
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Compare-And-Contrast-The-Destructors-And-The-
PJXKQWPQT
“The Lottery Study Guide.” Sparknotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-
lottery/section1/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
Levine, Yael. "The Destructors Plot Summary." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 30 Nov 2016.
Web. 7 Apr 2024.
