S TORY I NTERPRETATION

“T HE L OTTERY ”

The mundane –

 typical – everyone knows everyone


Normal town
Normal names

Mr. Summers


In charge of lottery
The meaning behind his name


Mr. Graves


Summers’ assistant
His name and character foreshadow

Tone


Friendly language
Social atmosphere

Weakness in humans


Fear of rejection in society
No open disapproval of lottery

Fear of change


Black box – symbol


Failure to replace it and failure to stand up to beliefs
It is “faded & stained” like their view of reality

Ordinary life vs. extreme evil = things are not always as they appear


Protagonist – Mrs. Hutchinson


She’s consumed by hypocrisy and weakness
Attempts to rebel and not show up




“forgetting what day it is”
Pleasant and social when arriving at drawing
IRONY – she stands up and “wins” lottery
After black dot, she’s selfish


Relevance today


We flock to nasty gossip
We “butt-in” where we do not belong



We can point out others’ faults until we do it – then no discussion
We stereotype until stereotyped
We are hypocrites!

Symbols – color black

Theme – social class division

“T O B UILD A F IRE ”

Characters


“the man” – protagonist
“the dog” – a foil


Old timer – not even present
Klondike – antagonist

Themes


Survival
Man vs. nature
 death


Point of view

3 rd paragraph

Man’s lack of imagination

His stupid/naïve/reckless


Man’s behavior makes the story
To survive – “all a man has to do is keep his head”

“A R OSE FOR E MILY ”

Portraits of Emily


Windows/doorway = changes in life
Clues to “whole picture” or the motivations behind her transformations


Protected by father
Youthful




Virgin-like
Hair cut short = no sexuality
She appears as a girl instead of a woman of 30
“tragic and serene”










After she kills Homer

Becomes dark silhouette of her father
She has lived with death literally – Homer’s body
She has locked herself away from time and progress
No sense of time – change ceases to exist
The distortion of time allows her to sleep with her lover??
She is a living corpse
Her iron-gray hair
Her iron will
Her decisive act of murder


Narrator


Basically the town “we”
Suggest gossiping nature


Her “crazy aunt”
Why they attend her funeral


Foreshadow – descriptive words


“her skeleton was small and sparse”
“she looked bloated, like a body long submerged in
motionless water and of that pallid hue.”



“her voice was dry and cold”
(house) “smelled of dust, disuse – a closed dank
smell”
(guests sit) – a “faint dust” rises


Foreshadow of father’s death


Emily’s denial of his death
3 days later she lets them bury him

“we did not say she was crazy then” – Do they now??

Manservent

Unaffected by the flow of time


Only his hair color changes
Walks out never to be seen again


Symbolism – the house


Once one of the nicest
“Big, squarish frame that had once been white”

Became “an eyesore among eyesores”

Old Southern beliefs/actions

Colonel’s rules




No negro woman without an apron
The taxes – “only a woman would have believed”
Judge – not wanting to tell her she smells
Ladies’ attitude about Homer