Essay/Term paper: Tradition(a rose for emily, the lottery

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Book Reports

Tradition



People throughout the world do things for many different reasons. Religion, peer pressure, or tradition are some of the reasons the people do things. In the U.S. we have many traditions such as Christmas. Some people have strange or out of the ordinary traditions. The two short stories "The Lottery" and "A Rose for Emily" both portray tradition.

In "The Lottery", tradition is showed in three main ways. First, Old Man Warner says, "there has always been a lottery (Jackson 11)." The town people accept The Lottery because there has always been a lottery. The older people in the town such as Old Man Warner keep the tradition alive with their ideals. Second, The Lottery is held every year. Tradition is upheld in this way because it introduces the younger generation to the tradition. This shows that the lottery is a tradition because traditions happen over and over again. Lastly, tradition is shown with the parifanilia used in the story of "The Lottery". The black box used to draw names is a duplicate of the original. The black box is a symbol of what was in the years past.

In "A Rose for Emily", tradition is also shown in three main ways. First, Emily does not get courted by anyone. This would not seem to be a normal tradition but in the story her father did not want Emily to become involved with anyone. Emily"s father was not following tradition when doing this because normal tradition would be to allow Emily to become involved with someone. Second, "A Rose for Emily" shows tradition in the way the townspeople treated Miss. Emily. Tradition is shown when the older generation of people put lime down instead of confronting Emily with the smell. The elders of the town also allowed Emily to go without paying taxes after she told them she did not have to pay them. Finally, tradition is shown with Emily cutting her hair. Emily cut her hair after her father died (Faulkner ?). This shows some tradition because women in that time and place of society do not cut their hair unless they want to show something. Emily was showing she had gotten over her father"s death and ready to move on with her life.

"The Lottery" and "A Rose for Emily" both show tradition in the same ways. First, both stories have women as the main characters as the ones showing tradition. Miss. Emily was the woman in "A Rose for Emily" that showed tradition. Tessie was the woman in "The Lottery" that showed tradition in the story. Second, in both stories the elders had the strongest tradition. In the story "A Rose for Emily" the older generation are the ones that respected Emily and let her get away with many things such as the taxes. In "The Lottery" old man Warner was the person keeping "The Lottery" alive with his ideals and his role in "The Lottery" throughout the years. Finally, in both stories the tradition changed a little. In "A Rose for Emily" the younger generation was changing the tradition in the way they treat the elder, august named people. In "The Lottery" the rituals and sayings that have been taken out of the agenda of "The Lottery" changed the tradition.

The short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "The Lottery" both have their own ways of showing tradition. "A Rose for Emily" had three main ways of showing tradition, "The Lottery" had three main ways of showing tradition also, and both stories have some of the same concepts of traditions.