Human Cruelty

Paper Summary:

The paper portrays how both short stories "The Lottery" and "Before the Firing Squad" differ with regard to their setting and context, but are both about the irrationality of human violence. The paper illustrates how the main characters in both stories share the emotional burden of having to take part in a violent action against members of their community. The paper highlights how both stories reveal the nature of human communities and the ties that exist between men, but that are easily broken when duty or tradition intervenes.

From the Paper:

"Shirley Jackson and John Chioles are both short-story writers, treating of similar aspects of human life. The two authors belong to different epochs, and the two stories under comparison have been written at an interval of almost half a century, but nonetheless, have a lot in common through the themes they tackle, although they differ in almost everything else, from composition to setting and context."
"Jackson' s work stands out because of the deeply human, although sometimes contextually unrealistic, subjects that she approaches in her fiction. John Chioles is a writer and translator, and a professor at the New York University, an expert in Greek classical studies. His work of fiction is also humanistic, like Shirley Jackson's, and mostly inspired by the Greek culture and civilization."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery and Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982
• Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry Jacobs. Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New York: Prentice Hall, 2003

More papers on Human Cruelty:

• Analytical Essay # 59030 : "Cruelty in "The Lottery"
• Analytical Essay # 9793 : "Cruelty and Kindness in "Halfbreed"
• Analytical Essay # 111162 : "Animal Cruelty"

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