The Effective Use of Common Experience in The Lottery and Araby Essay

The Effective Use of Common Experience in The Lottery and Araby - Essay ExampleBoth writers use recognizable situations and characters as effective tools, hardly in vastly different ways. Jackson uses typical characters and settings to deceive the reader into a complacence which is rudely shattered by the unexpected ending. On the different hand, in Araby, Joyce contrasts the commonplace situations and characteristics of the secondary characters with the curious emotions of the protagonist. In both cases, the reader is able to identify with the commonplace characters and situations in the narratives this is the major contributing factor that has do The Lottery and Araby stand the test of time. Jackson sets her short story in an ordinary, commonplace village, and peoples it with typical, recognizable characters, with whom the reader can easily identify. This effectively serves to intensify the uncommon horror of the ritualistic stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson at the climax. The charact ers are reassuringly familiar Mr. Summer, whose wife was a scold, and Old Man Warner who shows the senior citizens resistance to change. The casual company of the people in the village square in the warmth of a full-summer day , the children at play, the everyday conversations taking place the children talking of school, the women gossiping, the men speechmaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes, the cheerful banter surrounding Mrs. Hutchinsons late arrival all these are shared experiences that lull the reader into complacency.