Daniel Higgins
Professor Weyl
ENC 1102
3/4/17
“Shirley Jackson vs. Flannery O’Connor” Shirley Jackson and Flannery O’Connor’s stories that we are talking about “The Lottery” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” have a lot of similarities like the way they use their religious lifestyle to influence how the stories plot moves. Shirley Jackson uses an extensive amount of symbolism as well as characters names to foreshadow the inevitable. Flannery O’Connor is more involved with imagery to foretell the inevitable once again. Shirley Jackson uses the box in the lottery to show cultural customs from an earlier period. While analyzing the two stories I found that Shirley Jackson used character symbolism through the names of characters like Mr. Graves…show more content… The sign for the town of “Toomsboro” (571 O’Connor) is mentioned before they end up in the hands of the misfit. This quote “tall and dark and deep” (574 O’Connor) is imagery about the dark forest which is threatening and imposes doom soon to come. Then the “big black battered hearse like automobile” (574 O’Connor) appears. This vehicle is known for carrying coffins to a funeral which is eerie along with the dark forest making a more ominous feeling of impending doom. The grandmother is portrayed as a manipulator early on when she subtly tries to get them to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, she’s selfish as well on several occasions most notably hiding the cat even though asked not to bring it. Flannery O’Connor made The Misfit hard to portray as he has a lot going on, he has etiquette shown here “I’m sorry I don’t have on a shirt before you ladies” (576 O’Connor). He also presumes that no matter what crime you do you’ll forget what you did and just be punished for it. Bailey the man in charge so he thinks… Is not so manly, as soon as the encounter with The Misfit occurs he loses it before the grandmother even recognizes him and says a snide comment to the grandmother. June Star is Bailey’s daughter she is nasty to everyone but fearless even to The Misfit and his henchmen with guns. John Wesley is Bailey’s son…show more content… “The lottery” is a haunting short story written by Shirley Jackson and its central theme involves the blind faith of tradition and religion. Whereas “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the theme isn’t about blind faith and is more focused on the fact that everyone is guilty of something or has sinned once in their life and individual moral codes. The author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism in the character’s names like “Mr. Summers” which provided us with the time of the year “The Lottery” took place, as well as a vast array of other examples. However, the author of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Conner, doesn’t use the character’s names themselves as symbols rather other elements of the story. In both stories the authors used symbolism which is shown here: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the grandmother’s hat represented her misguided moral code, “The Lottery” the black box itself was a representation of the towns connections to tradition, "no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box"(Jackson). Both stories showed several examples of irony, in “The lottery” the biggest example is the fact that the “winner” is the loser or the one that gets killed. In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the author uses situational irony when an evil man, The Misfit, causes Bailey's mother to see herself for what she is, a
