Comparing and Contrasting the Lottery and the Yellow Wallpaper

Comparing and Contrasting the Lottery and the Yellow Wallpaper

Comparing and Contrasting The Lottery and The Yellow Wallpaper
Christin M. Silver
Axia College

Introduction
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two fascinating stories with much depth. While both stories do not share the same plot, both stories do share similar themes and symbols; however, they are also very different.
Plot Summary of The Lottery
The Lottery is a story about the residents of a New England village. One beautiful morning, 300 of the townspeople gather by the local post office to celebrate the annual lottery. Children play a game consisting of gathering stones and adults are chatting amongst themselves; life is good so it seems. The rules of the lottery are simple; all the heads of households must draw a slip of paper out of a box. Whichever family draws the slip with the black dot, each member of the family must redraw to see which family member will win the proceeds of the lottery. Unfortunately, instead of a monetary award, which occurs in today’s lotteries, the winners of the lottery in this village will be stoned to death. As the villagers each draw his or her slip of paper, the “winners” are the Hutchinsons. The family eventually draws another slip of paper that determines which member of the Hutchinson clan will receive the winnings. The mother of the family is the unlucky winner. As Tessie Hutchinson protests the injustices of the lottery, the townspeople eagerly stone her to death in time to make it for their 12 o’clock dinner.
Plot Summary of The Yellow Wallpaper
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the anonymous female narrator and her physician husband John have rented out a colonial mansion for the summer. Thus, the protagonist can recuperate from a bout of depression she is going through. On her first day in the secluded house, the narrator finds something odd about the house, but her husband, who is also her doctor, does not believe she is sick but only that she has a...

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