A Rose for Emily vs the Lottery

Robert Brockel Brockel1 Dr. Robert Janusko English 2 19 February 201 Foreshadowing There are many ways that a reader can be prepared for the ending of a story, “The Lottery” and “A Rose for Emily” are two very grueling short stories with a long suspense and a similar plot. The narrator’s stance in “A Rose for Emily” was first-person observer, which is defined as a single character point of view in which the narrator was is not involved with the story and the narrator’s stance in “The Lottery” was third-person anonymous which is involves a narrator that does not enter any minds. Both stances conceal the endings and both the stories use imagery and foreshadowing to prepare the reader for the ending. “A Rose for Emily” contains more direct clues but leaves you second guessing whether what is anticipated really happens. “The Lottery” is better known for concealing the entire story till the ending. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a very surprising story to say the least and gives an overview in the beginning of a small American town of three hundred people that have an annual ritual called “the lottery.” There are significant parts of the story that adumbrate the end of the story and leave the reader in a muddle until the end. First off, in the beginning of the story, the children of the town have just finished school Brockel 2 for the summer on a beautiful June day and they are running around gathering stones to form into a pile. The anticipated ritual is performed to ensure a good harvest even though they do not remember this. One character named Warner quotes an old proverb, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” Knowing how the story ends its hard to understand that people in an old American town would sacrifice one for the belief that is would give them decent fruitage for the months to come. This story would have a better affiliation with another part of the world where