Comparitive Study of Mending Wall

Comparative Study of “Mending Wall” and “The Lottery” Traditions bring people together for a purpose of handing down beliefs or customs from generation to generation. The tradition could be for a joyous purpose like Thanksgiving or Christmas, and even a sorrowful purpose like funerals or a date like September 11. In “Mending Wall” the tradition brought two neighbors together each year to repair any damage made to their fence. However, in “The Lottery” the tradition brings the whole town together to sacrifice one person drawn in the lottery in hopes of bringing a bountiful harvest. While many traditions are important to hold over, in some instances it is essential to abolish traditions that have outrun their time in this modern age. For instance there was a law to forbid people from carrying pliers that could cut a fence made in the old days when there was the open range in Texas. Now there is no open range in Texas therefore we do not need the law anymore. The speaker in “Mending Wall” used repairing the fence as a symbol of ridding old traditions while in The Lottery everyone kept up the tradition even though people showed fear. In both “The Lottery” and ‘Mending Wall” there is some resistance to go along with the tradition each holds. In “Mending Wall” the speaker pokes fun at the neighbor by explaining there is no need for a wall, “There where it is we do not need the wall; He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple tree will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.” (lines 23-26). The speaker sees no purpose for the fence since it is only separating the trees. Likewise, in “The Lottery” there is a lot of uneasiness throughout the town leading up to the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson. In the beginning of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the children , “ School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into

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