Analysis of 'The Lottery' & 'The Prodigal Son': Themes & Societal Values, Thesis of Literature

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Literary Analysis

“The Lottery” and “The Prodigal Son”

Table of contents

• Thesis Statement
• Analysis...........................................................................................................................................
  • Introduction
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
• References

Analysis

Introduction In this section, the learner has described a literary analysis of two fiction stories ‘The Lottery’ and ‘The Prodigal Son’. Both of the stories are developed on the basis of different contexts and the analysis is done depending on the showcasing of themes and contexts of both of these stories. The learner has described the main theme of the stories. The learner has also analysed if both of the themes represented are similar in any context, moreover, the point of discussion involves the techniques of conveying the themes of the story. The discussion also ensures how the theme is perfect for delivering the purpose of the author, styles and approaches to deliver what was expected to be delivered (Panero et al., 2016).

Discussion In the year 1948, in New York, the story ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson was appeared, first in the magazine New Yorker. The main theme of the story is horror. It is considered as a horror story developed by Shirley. This story was never considered as one of the best stories and often ban was implemented on this story. Although, it was not banned but it kept many secrets as it never answered several questions for the critiques.

As an instance, it was a fact that in this story, each year in a town, one individual wins a lottery and the person wins the lottery is stoned to death at the end of that particular year. So, the first question that was never answered through the story was the reason behind existence of that lottery, as in why the lottery even existed within that town was never explained by the author. It is a strategy behind attracting the readers to read the story as many times as possible to find out the accurate answers. Several more signs are there within the story that develops different insights for the readers as in one case, there is an irrelevant quote that states “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones." ("A Literary Analysis of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson", 2019).

The readers have still not understand why this is relevant to the story as later many explanation suggest that it is a case of foreshadowing the theme. Not including the reason behind the existence of the lottery suggests the theme replicates the theme ‘SCAPEGOAT’. The basic idea

of the scapegoat has existed since the early days of Judaism. In that tradition, it was literally a goat, but the idea is to sacrifice a single person for the sins of the society is generally how it has been used metaphorically.

In case of the second story, ‘ The prodigal son ’ by St. Luke was a story of bible and presence of Jesus. The theme of this story was to provide insights on background and cultural aspects of Jewish people. It also sensually suggests a probable theme for the society, which is a little similar to the theme of the story ‘ The Lottery ’. ‘The prodigal Son’ represents three different aspects of father and son connection as well as their societal development planning ("The Prodigal Son: Bible Story Summary, Analysis and Themes", 2019). Depending on the story’s theme, the youngest son represents the people, who were always called by the God for whatever reasons and the right to become the children of God. The father in this story represents the God itself as the father gets his sons back from where he never hoped for this return. The eldest son is another character of the story, which represents a cultural leader and societal values of that particular time. The eldest son represents the character of a Jewish leader.

Both of the stories are similar towards the facts of society, societal values as well as justification of actions towards God’s justice.

Conclusion It can be concluded that although both the stories represent a similar theme or context in an overall delivering factor but includes various parameters that can be differentiated using major elements of developing a fiction story.