Town's Past And Their Southern Traditions example essay topic

Romanticizing about the past, as demonstrated in both Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", can be a harmful quest for the impossible. Although memories can be a healthy reminder of the past, attempting to relive them can be a fatal mistake. In "A Rose for Emily", the main character Emily's ultimate downfall is a result of her inability to live in the present and face the reality of the current times. Similarly, in "The Lottery", the townspeople firmly believe in the importance of keeping the tradition of the lottery active, despite it resulting in their demise. The main character in "A Rose for Emily", Emily Grierson, is the submissive daughter of a Confederate soldier, a virginal, Southern woman, who struggles to relive the past, and to keep old traditions.

Once her father dies, Emily continues to dwell on the power her family once had, despite the changing times. The portrait in the house reflects the relationship she had with her father, "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddle d silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door". Emily also enables the townspeople to live in the past, and is referred to as a "tradition, a duty, a care". Her lifestyle symbolizes the town's past, and their southern traditions. Despite the changing times, Emily turns away from change, and became a recluse. "She went out very little... people hardly saw her at all", as she forced the past upon herself by cutting the present out of her life.

Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery", also demonstrates the past's ability to be destructive. The small town of around 300 is portrayed as relatively calm, quiet, and civilized. The lottery is ironically conducted by the same man who organized "the square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program", giving the impression that the lottery is a pleasant form of entertainment. The boys' early arrival to the lottery foreshadows the fatalistic outcome, as they "made a great pile of stones in the corner of the square...

". Also ironic is the title, because a lottery is typically beneficial for the "winner", but in this case, the individual chosen will die. Although most villagers seem calm about the lottery, the mood suddenly changes, and the outcome becomes more apparent when the Hutchinson name is chosen, and Mrs. Hutchinson shouts alarmed ly, "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair". As demonstrated by both William Faulkner, and Shirley Jones, romanticizing about the past can be a fatal mistake, and proves to be so in both of these stories.

Despite one's desire to relive memories, they are impossible to relive in the present. The themes of symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony each enable the authors to focus on their apparent message of the futility, and even harm, of living in the past.