Short Story

Who can promise that they have never been selfish throughout their life? Who can say out loud that they never did something that had a bad influence on others, only because of personal benefit? The answer is in the short story “The Lottery”, which was written by in 1948.

The story takes place in a small town where everyone has to join the lottery, and the winner will be sacrificed for heavy crops for the town. During the lottery, everyone including Tessie Hutchinson, who wins the lottery, expresses their selfishness both consciously and unconsciously.

Shirley Jackson is making a point about selfishness. To be specific, she notes that selfishness is born within mankind and lives deep inside, behind their mask of duplicity. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes selfishness, she is a happy kind married woman before the lottery, but by the time she finds out that she actually ‘wins’ the lottery, which means she has to sacrifices for the town, it’s when her selfishness starts to appears.

When Hutchinson family is choose to have the second draw, Tessie strongly argues that “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted, I saw you, it wasn’t fair! ” (P. 6) even though she also pinches his husband Bill to draw the paper.

She only worries about her family were chosen. Moreover, she only cares about herself, during the second draw, she strongly agrees about her daughters to join the lottery, which will make more chances for her to survive. Her selfishness is unavoidable even though she is a mother of a family, because selfishness is deep inside her.

Beside Tessie Hutchinson who is an adult, some innocent, pure little children also contain absolute selfishness, just like Tessie’s children Bill, Jr. and Nancy. They join the second lottery with Hutchinson family although they are too young, but when they find out that they are not the one who ‘wins’ the lottery, they both “beamed and Laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads. ” (P. 8) They delight about they didn’t get selected to sacrifice. They are happy because the one who will die are not them, but their mother.

Children are not able to endure their impressions, which make them express their true emotions, in this case selfishness throughout their innocent faces unconsciously, because they are simply happy, they didn’t learn anything from others, it was just their instinct reactions that appear because of the selfishness, which born within themselves.

Everyone in the village also has the exact same feelings as Bill, Jr. and Nancy, but they don’t express their feeling by reactions to others because they have more mature masks which are their faces of conscience.

Before the lottery starts, everyone acts like they are nice innocent person. They talk to each other like friends, just like they really care about each other. However, when Tessie says the lottery is unfair, and should do the lottery again, the selfishness within people is no more covering by the masks of “kindness”.

As they face another bad chance to die, their emotions come out right away consciously, they say “be a good sport, Tessie. ” or “All of us took the same chance. ” (P.6) to get away from the danger. Including Bill Hutchinson who is Tessie’s husband, he “went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. ” (P. 8) to make sure she is the one who will die, and shows the slip of paper with black dot to everyone. The masks of ‘conscience’ , ‘kindness’ or even ‘love’ will lose their power in front of the selfishness when people are in an extreme situation. The masks cannot cover the true natural sense of mankind. Selfishness is something that no one can reject it.

It’s something that everyone owns, but owns without any authority to control it. It’s something that is impossible to hide behind the masks of duplicity forever. It’s the basic and strongest devil that born within everyone.

But it is possible to change the way of being selfish, by respecting others selfishness, by knowing that other people only care about themselves just like usual, and by finally realize that the easiest way to protect or gain benefit to yourself is by helping others, because devotion will always come back like a boomerang.

This essay is going to be an analysis and interpretation of the short story ‘’Reunion’’ by John Cheever. It will begin with a summary of the short story. Afterward the plot, the conflict and the setting will be analyzed. Then I’ll move on to the characterization, the possible surprise ending and the theme and message. Finally I will draw parallels between the short story ‘’Reunion’’ and the essay ‘’Living With Strangers’’ by Siri Hustvedt. ‘’Reunion’’ is a short story about a boy called Charlie and his last interaction with his father.

Charlie was traveling by train from his grandmother to a cottage his mother had rented. He would be in New York for about an hour and thirty minutes while waiting for the new train and therefore he wanted to meet his father. He hadn’t seen his father for three years and Charlie was exited to see the man he looked up to again. Because of the lack of time, they couldn’t go and see the father’s club, so they had to find a restaurant in the area. They went to four restaurants and they get more or less thrown out of all four. The father in this short story was either really drunk or/and very arrogant.

In all occasions he talked down to waiters or behaved bad in one way or the other. In spite of his bad behavior they managed to get a ‘’Beefeater Gibson’’ at one place. It all ended with the father going up to a newsstand, again with a bad attitude, which was the final straw for Charlie who said ‘’Goodbye, daddy’’ and walked towards the station. That was the last time Charlie saw his father. This short story is one big flashback. The whole story is a flashback that concedes chronologically. It starts with a very short introduction in which Charlie just says ‘’The last time I saw my father was in Grand Central Station.’’, and from thereon he tells the story as a flashback.

The conflict in this story is the high expectations from Charlie. Charlie admires his father very much, but when he meets him, he’s an arrogant and probably drunk jerk. Three years have gone, since they last saw each other and that is a long time. People can change a lot during three years and this is probably what also happened to the father or else Charlie just remembered him differently. The end shows that the conflict was too much to bear for Charlie as he says ‘’…that was the last time I saw my father. ’’.

The reason why it was the last time they saw each other is probably because of the disappointment Charlie must have felt. Probably he doesn’t want to see his former ‘’hero’’ anymore, because he actually is a jerk. The setting takes places in New York City or more precisely around the Grand Central Station. Furthermore it takes place in four restaurants and by a newsstand. It is most likely to take place in the last half of the 20th century. It was first published in 1962, but the scene could still take place today. The fact that Charlie’s parents are divorced also makes the story more modern, since that problem is very common nowadays.

Back in that time where it was written it was unusual to be divorced, actually it was almost weird. Now let’s move on to the characterizations. Charlie is the main character and he’s probably a young boy. He lives with his mother, as his parents are divorced. His age is not mentioned, but in the text there is a line that makes him sound young: ‘’I knew that when I was grown I would be something like him’’. This makes the reader picture him as a child as he says ‘’when I was grown’’. But o the other hand later on he drinks alcohol with his father, which makes him seem to be almost a grownup.

To begin with, he looks very much up to his father, that changes and it all ends with him not wanting to be with his father and actually never wanting to see him again. During the story he doesn’t really say much. Of course he’s the narrator, but it is the father who leads the conversations. The father owns a club and has a secretary. He smells of ‘’…a rich compound of whiskey and after-shave lotion, shoe polish, woolens, and the rankness of a mature male. ’’. The fact that he smells partly of whiskey suggests that he had been drinking. His behavior could also verify that, as he behaved like an unstable person.

He could also just be very, very arrogant as he almost feels that he is more than for example the waiters. He talks down to people and is generally very unpleasant. Neither his name or age is mentioned, but he might be in the mid-forties. The characters are directly told about by the narrator for example in this part of the text ‘’I smelled my father the way my mother sniffs a rose. It was a rich compound of whiskey and after-shave lotion, shoe polish, woollens, and the rankness of a mature male’’. He describes his father directly with a comment on his smell.

It is called ‘’ direct characterization’’ The father is a flat character – he remains the same throughout the story. He remains being a jerk, while Charlie is a round character as he develops throughout the story. At first he is excited to see his father again, but he ends up not wanting to ever see him again. We are dealing with a first-person narrator, who in this story is the protagonist. The ending could be seen as a surprise ending since Charlie starts being excited to see his father but ends up saying ‘’Goodbye’’ and never wanting to see him again.

On the other hand it isn’t really surprising, as the father throughout the story seems very unpleasant and maybe even embarrassing to be around. It is a case of argument. The themes in this short story are love, father and son relationship, expectations, abuse of alcohol, disappointment (the grass isn’t always greener on the other side) and the hard word ‘’goodbye’’. The message here must be not to have too high expectations and that people change. Now it’s time to draw parallels between ‘’Reunion’’ and ‘’Living With Strangers’’. These two stories both take place in New York and they both touch the subject ‘’the meeting with strangers’’.

In ‘’Living With Strangers’’ the narrator tells us about strange strangers, but in ‘’Reunion’’ Charlie’s father actually is the strange stranger. He marks the people he talks down to, with his boisterousness. They will maybe think back some time of the ‘’drunk/arrogant jerk, who thought he owned the world’’. Generally these two stories show the two sides of a story. Another parallel could be the ‘’not making a big deal out of something’’. The waiters f. ex. don’t make a big deal out of the boisterousness, they just send Charlie’s father outside. That is the ‘’PRETEND IT ISN’T HAPPENING’’-rule.

“Once you allow your foundation to be restored, not a small or quick task, you will be able, with God’s help, to build the life He always intended you to have” (Sandra Celeste). Chinua Achebe, the author of “Civil Peace,” writes about a stereotypical life in Africa, from struggles to miracles, the story is focused around the main character, Jonathan Iwegbu’s, point of view. The main conflict is the bittersweet fact that Civil War has come to an end, but many African families have lost everything they have ever known. Jonathan, is surprised to see that his house is still standing when other structures around it are demolished.

The author uses motifs, characterization and plot to further echo conflict through the entire piece. A quote that is repeated throughout “Civil Peace” is that, “Nothing Puzzles God” (Achebe 359). This motif helps support the characters, which further helps support the conflict. This recurring quote helps support the theme by giving characteristics to Jonathan. He is being blessed over and over again, and remains humble. At the end of the Civil War, his bike is kept safe and he is able to sell, and then afford a taxi drive back to Enugu to search for his home.

In that whole experience, he does nothing but say that God is limitless, “But, needless to say, even that monumental blessing must be accounted also totally inferior to the five heads in the family. This newest miracle was his little house in Ogui Overside. Indeed nothing puzzles God! ” (Achebe 359). This quote gives support to the motif, which then is portrayed as the theme. The motif is also the main supportation for the main character, Jonathan. In the “Civil Peace,” Achebe describes the main character, Jonathan, as a humble African man, who experiences difficulties after the Civil War.

He is directly supported by the theme that, “Nothing Puzzles God,” because of the amount of times he is heard saying it. Characterization is a big part in this story, and it is used to support the theme, which is the direct backbone to the main conflict. The conflict is based around Jonathan and his struggle to rebuild his home and his life. Through Jonathan the journey is not hard to read, due to the complete humble nature of him and his life. “I count it as nothing,’ he told his sympathizers, his eyes on the rope he was tying.

‘What is _egg-rasher_? Did I depend on it last week? Or is it greater than other things that went with the war? I say, let _egg-rasher_ perish in the flames! Let it go where everything else has gone. Nothing puzzles God” (Achebe 364). Even in his worst times, when all he had earned for his family after the war was taken away, he still praised God and put it into a completely different viewpoint. Jonathans character is a great use of conflict supportation, but his character also enhances the plot, which in the end directly reflects the main theme.

The plot of any story is the foundation and the base for all characters, themes, or motifs. Plot is used to portray action throughout the story. In the “Civil Peace,” the author uses the plot to intensify Jonathans character and magnify the main conflict. The two most important conflicts that happen throughout the story are when Jonathan travels to Enugu and discovers that him and his family will be forced to work and rebuild their home and lives, and when Jonathan has worked and earned money but gets robbed and is left with nothing once again.

The plot emphasizes these points when, “Jonathan and his family were now completely paralysed by terror. Maria and the children sobbed inaudibly like lost souls. Jonathan groaned continuously” (Achebe 362). The author uses syntax and diction in this excerpt, to support the plot. He used words like, “inaudibly” and, “paralyzed with terror,” which is called imagery and helps the readers have a direct connection to the plot. In many ways plot is used to further the conflict.

In many ways the author, Chinua Achebe, uses a motif, theme, characterization through the main character Jonathan, and plot, to support the main conflicts. These literary devices are key factors in the story of the “Civil Peace. ” By examining the authors purpose of writing this piece, it is made clear that the intended theme is that, “Nothing Puzzles God. ” Knowing that this is the theme and the authors purpose is important in determining the conflict and the reasoning behind it. In this case, the author uses the literary devices to further and extend upon the conflict.

It was a normal tuesday day for Henry, he woke up to find his room full with the smell of freshly cooked pie. His wife was up early cooking breakfast for him and his sick kid Josiah. Henry was a farmer and didn’t have the money for medication and plus there was no doctor for miles. So he went out to toil in his farm. That day he had harvested his carrots,potatoes, and onions.

He drove his harvest to a nearby town for sale. He had got his quota with $10 extra, so he went to poznan. Henry hoped he had enough to pay for medication for Josiah. When he passed onto a concrete road he noticed that the officers looked different. The police had on olive green uniforms instead of blue and they carried assault rifles instead of pistols. Despite the scare henry got out to hope he had enough for the medicine. He walked into the pharmacy and asked for the medication, but the pharmacist asked for a ID card.

Henry said he didn’t have it, so the pharmacist motioned over a officer. Henry began to shake, and told the pharmacist not to and that he would give him $5 to pocket if he didn’t. The pharmacist thought about it, but still got the officer to come over. The officer told him to follow him to a small concrete building. Henry followed the officer to a booth where the officer sat him down and asked him for his full name, birthdate and birthplace. The officer said he would be back with the ID card. The officer gave him the card about 10 mins later and told him to go get his medication and leave quickly.

Henry was confused, but did what he said. On his way back he looked at the card and everything was on there that he told the officer but, there was a 6 pointed star. He never thought about it and kept driving back home. He gave the medication to his son, who was still in bed with a high fever and cold sweats. Henry went to sit down for super and showed his wife the card. His wife said that the star ment that he was a descendant of a jew. They both didn’t think of it much and went to bed.

The next morning he found his wife up early again tending there sick son. He went to go and talk to Josiah, but to his surprise Josiah was up and walking but still had a fever but no cold sweats. Henry was happy to find that and went to work on his farm happy and ready. He worked till late that night. The lightning bugs started to fill the sky so he laid down in the field and called for his wife to lay with him and enjoy the night. They both fell asleep in the field and awoke and went back into the house to find their son missing nothing was moved or missing. Like he woke up and just ran off.

They went to get in their car to drive to find him, but before they got in the car they saw treads in the dirt from some other vehicle, but it had started to rain when they got inside. The road began to become slick and undrivable and the tracks disappeared. Henry and his wife waited for the next day and set out to find their son. They went to town and found it destroyed most shop fronts were destroyed the officers tripled and their where cloth signs up saying “Juden werden hier nicht bedient” (Jews are not wanted here). They stopped to ask a “officer” what was going on the officer said, “The fuhrer order that all jews be relocated to a new housing area”. He asked for their identification card Henry gave him his new found card the officer told him to pack up his things and head to the train station for his safety. Henry asked if the officer had any information of his son’s whereabouts.

The officer said that there was a caravan coming by to pick any able body to fight for the german army. Henry and his wife were dumbfounded and scared, because this wasn’t like their son to do a thing like that. Henry and his wife went home trying to comprehend what their son had done before they had to move. They stayed up all night preparing to leave and still trying to comprehend what was going on. Henry and his wife left at sunrise to get a head start, they went through town to get to the train station. Hey had noticed that even more stores were destroyed and more signs were up. They had arrived at the station packed and ready, they walked up to the officer behind the counter he gave the officer his card.

The officer let him through and 2 more officers grabbed his suitcases and told him they would be returned to after the train yard. That was the last time he would see any of his family again. He looked at the car and saw that it was a cargo car not a normal transit car. They were stuffed in and he began to think there was something else going on than what he wasn’t told. The whole ride was 3 days long and he was tired and hungry, the whole car smelled of a dead body do to the overfilled outhouse bucket in the corner of the car. They had finally reached the “new area”. There was lots of guards with bigger guns all around.

There was a man in a black suit with a baton direction men, women and children. He walked under a gate to get to the man in black and it said Arbeit macht frei (work makes you free). He finally got to the man in black he looked at me and played with his baton and pointed it left. He was pointing at a concrete building i asked what it was the officer said, “Dusche”. They piled us in the building told us to strip down and drop our belonging in the big bin. There was a lot of us in there with only 10 shower heads. We sat in there for awhile it was a lot different from anywhere i have been before.

All of a sudden the big metal door shuts behind us and a hole in the roof opened and a can fell in and people in front of Henry started to fall over as if to die. The Henry knew it was poison and that was it for him. Another hole in the roof opened behind him and one above him opened and it blinded him. The can fell from the roof on his head and knocked him out to the floor.

The Theme of “Lust” The theme of the short story “Lust” changes throughout the story as you continue reading. In the beginning, it seems as if the protagonist is doing what she likes and enjoys. However, as you keep reading you realize that the protagonist seems to be looking for a solution to forget the pain she is feeling. According to , “When you first start to read the story the protagonist seems to be experimenting with new things and new experiences.

She is trying to get to know who she is as a woman in a sexual aspect. The author, in the beginning, uses short sentences with a more cheerful vocabulary. As the short story further continues, the sentences are much longer and the negativity shows. Her vocabulary is no longer cheerful. It is as if the protagonist is trying to get over an unbearable and painful relationship, but doesn’t know how”. In my opinion, I think the protagonist is afraid of loving again so keeps her emotions hidden.

She also keeps her distance and by doing so she turns to lustful activities with multiple partners. The protagonist is lacking some kind of love, she may not even love herself. If she cannot love herself then how can she love at all? The protagonist has a emptiness that she wants to fulfill, but does not know quite know how to. She feels sad and alone, even rejected in several different ways. She is feeling used by her multiple partners, yet deep down inside she wants them to love her in some kind of way, not just in a sexual way.

The protagonist wants that sense of security and tender lovingness she is lacking in her life. She doesn’t seem to realize how badly she wants to fill that empty void she knows she has. I think that the protagonist feels she doesn’t even exist, her self esteem is very low and she has no confidence in herself. This could also mean she had some kind of family issues as a child. She may also be lacking love from her parents or they never showed her love. If that is the case then she only knows how to be distant.

She is afraid of opening up to a man and letting him in. She has definitely dealt with some type of heartache in the past. It is slowly destroying her and bringing her down. The protagonist is settling for less than what she deserves. This is all she knows and doesn’t think she deserves more. She is looking at the situation as being “better than nothing”. Furthermore, in all actuality her emotional pain is intensively increasing with each one of her lover’s.

Interpretation of Yellow The short story “Yellow by Peter Carry Is about being Insecure and how lack of self- esteem can lead a person to suicide. It Is also about changing as a person by gathering enough courage to do It. The story revolves around the mall character Jon, a second-string writer on a London listings magazine, who has been forced on a learn-to-scuba-dive trip in Egypt. Jon is an insecure, overweight man with no willpower, pushing forty and dealing with a midlife crisis. There are also two minor characters in the story, Beret the scuba diving instructor and Brian the other student n Beret’s group.

The story is told over a few days and mainly takes place in the ocean, the diving school and his hotel, though the hotel is used for nothing more than drinking liquor. The story is told by an omniscient third person narrator that gives us a better impression of Son’s way of thinking so we can tell why he in the end chooses to drown himself. Jon is lonely on the trip, the editor didn’t pay for his girlfriend to come with him and he Is envious of the other student Brian. “But he envied Brian his calm, the methodical way he assembled and clambered Into the ear. ” (p. 1, l. 9-20) Brian Is a calm, methodical person who Is In control of his own life, unlike Jon. They do not have anything In common besides knowledge of alcoholic beverages, and all conservations just lead nowhere. Son’s relationship with his girlfriend does not go well either, “The silences between them had multiplied, then lengthened into an empty continuum. ” (p. 2, l. 54-55). The primary reasons for Son’s mid-life crisis are his not-so-well relationship and his suppressed frustration over always being called “Yellow, a term meaning coward. He thought of his fear and became angry. Well, this would show them he wasn’t yellow. (p. 2, l. 128-129). He is sick and tired of his life and tries to drink his misery away but even the alcohol is not on his side, “He poured more gin, but no matter how much he swallowed it was never enough. ” (p. 1, l. 57). In the end, he could only numb his pain by drinking water. Jon actually clings to life at one point, refusing to die. “Beret grabbed him and thrust in a mouthpiece just before Jon broke the surface, gasping for life, clawing in air. ” (p. 3, l. 99-100). This shows that he is not completely ready to let go of his life, even though having contemplated suicide a number of times.

He finally transform in the end, he gathers up courage to prove that he is not a coward and let go of his old self. He starts drinking of the ocean water and look back up at himself from below. “Well, this would show them he wasn’t yellow. Then he was calm again and looked back up at himself from below. ” (p. 2, l. 128-129). He finally experiences the calm which symbolizes the transformation to his new self. He has left the old ‘Jon’ behind and has come the new, free and Ideal ‘Jon’. Longboats Hughes’ “Suicide’s Note”, where the calm face of the river asks for a kiss, fits Jon perfectly, as he accepts the river’s kiss of death. Heir nothingness part of an immeasurable emptiness, as if they has shows how he thinks of the depths as an opportunity to leave his life behind. In William Wordsmith’s poem, “Lines composed a Few miles Above Tinder Abbey’, where he feels freed by natures living air, blue sky and round ocean Just like how the ocean is Son’s beautiful escape way, which releases him from his depressed thoughts ND frees him of his misery. Man vs.. Nature William Wordsmith is a poet who lived during the Romantic era and was heralded as a genius and was the source of inspiration to many.

In his poem, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tinder Abbey’, he is saddened by man’s inferiority when compared to natures many wonders such as the beauty of a sunset, a raging waterfall and the living air. William Wordsmith felt that nature was an everlasting source of inspiration that knew no boundaries and is astounded by Mother Nature hat fills people up with calming and positive thoughts whereas the human mind chains people with stressful and negative thoughts aiming to hurt and dominate the mind of the individual.

Jon and William Wordsmith share the same love for nature because it is their source of inspiration. Jon has grown tired of the Job, his life and the cruel and the indifferent society he lived in. Jon was inspired by the oceans deep dark abyss and felt like this was the place he could get away from it all, the place where he could be at peace.