The Pursuit of Luck in “the Lottery” and “the Rocking-Horse Winner”

Introduction

“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, and “The Rocking- Horse Winner” written by D.H. Lawrence. Both stories are very similar but at the same time are quite different. “The Lottery” talks about a tradition in a small village town that takes place every year and how dangerous traditions can be. “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is about a young boy, and his luck with his rocking horse, and his beautiful mother obsession for more money. Her lack of love for others move Paul to take a wrong turn. The conflicts in these stories are different in every way, until the end where the characters in both stories died. In this fiction stories I will compare their similitudes and differences between each story, the themes, characters, and plot .

“The Lottery” is a story about a group of villagers from New England in the summer of June where “three hundred people” gather to joins a lottery traditions that takes place every year (Jackson, 1984). The lottery event was conducted by Mr. Summers who officiates the civic events. The villagers gather at a designated area to perform a customary ritual that has been practiced for many years. This story is about the loyalty to a tradition, rituals and ideas that has been passed through generations, following the rules tradition no matter how dangerous can be. They were told to not look at their slips until instructed and the one in charge for each group are called to retrieve their slips of paper from the black box. The villagers look at their paper, Hutchinson realizes that he is holding the slip with a black dot and creates a complaint because the drawing was not fair, so the whole family was told to put the slips back into the black box for another drawing. They gather to enjoy a tradition and ended picking up someone to be stone to death.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a story about a beautiful woman with three children’s who dreams to live a life she cannot afford and had a quiet obsession for more money due to the fact that never was enough money for her. It’s about money, success and the main factor which the luck that Paul believe he has. She have a young boy named Paul, who wants to win money to help his mother with a financial situation at home, so Paul manages to do so by riding his horse. He did this several times, winning a great amount of money every time he rides, but for his mother does not matter how hard he tries, was never enough money. Eventually, Paul rides his horse to the point that he collapsed and later on died. Paul was winning a significant amount of money but at the end, he was not a winner, he was a loser because at the end he loses his life, now money is not worsted he is dead.

These two stories are very similar, and at the same time, the two stories are quite different. There similar because both stories are fiction, each story use some type of symbol. In “The Lottery” the symbol was the black box. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” the symbol was the rocking horse. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” Paul ride himself to death, he wants to help his mother with the financial situation at home, but more than anything Paul was trying to win his mother affection by making money. The house where he lives was hunted by voices whispering “There must be more money.” But for Heater his mother it does not matter what he does or how hard he rides the rocking horse was never was enough money.