Tradition In 'The Lottery And A Rose For Emily'

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Novelist Chinua Achebe once stated, "When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries you don’t just turn it off one day." However, something that is going on forever doesn’t necessarily mean it is right as the one who has to suffer see's things differently. It is shown in the short stories, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In these short stories, the idea of tradition vs. change where tradition wins by a long margin, play's a very important role as it has several negative consequences on the protagonists. Similarly, change does not occur in the two stories,though Tradition vs. Change effects the protagonists, their families, and the society. Firstly, Tradition vs. Change has tragic effect's on the protagonists in both stories. For example, in "The Lottery," Tessie is a victim of a cruel tradition of getting…show more content…
In "The Lottery," Tessie's husband, Bill Hutchinson display's his loyalty, he is relieved that it is not him who has drawn the slip as the narrator states, "Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand" (301). He also does not support her when she protest's about her selection in the lottery which gives her thoughts of something happening to her children after she passes. Similarly, in "A Rose for Emily," Emily's father illustrates how cruel he is by caring more about traditions then his daughter. He gives Emily no freedom whatsoever to become her own person, considering he adequately keeps her home as the narrator states, "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away."Clearly in both stories it is foreshadowing that for humans to choose themselves over anything at all including their families is instinctive. This also interprets the importance of the theme as it exposes the true characteristics of the
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