Shirley Jackson is a great writer who was born in San Francisco in 1919. She lived in a small town in Vermont with her husband, a literary critic. She was considered a very odd and controversial figure; some of the townspeople considered her to be a witch. She wrote a lot of different stories, from funny to disturbing pieces like "Trial by Combat" and "The Lottery", who is considered as her masterpiece. "Trial by Combat" shows the good aspects of the human nature and "The Lottery" shows the evil aspects of the human nature. "The Lottery" and "Trial by Combat" are opposed, but both are stories from Shirley Jackson so her style does not change.
First of all, Shirley Jackson used foreshadowing at the beginning of both of her stories. In "Trial by Combat" she shows that Emily Johnson is a person who is tolerant and who would not choose the easiest way to solve a problem: "Emily had know for some time who was taking the things, but it was only tonight that she had decided what to do. She had hesitated about complaining to the landlady because her looses were trivial and because she had felt certain that sooner or later she would know how to deal with the situation herself". In "The Lottery", she used foreshadowing to show us that something will happen with the stones and this thing is bad, it is a murder: "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and the roundest stones. and eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boy". Shirley Jackson used foreshadowing in "Trial by Combat" to show the good nature of Emily Johnson. In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson used foreshadowing to show us that the kids will use their stones to kill someone; the one who will win the lottery.
Many kids in the United States grow up playing some form of organized sports. Whether an individual or team sport, sports are purest at this young age. There is an emphasis in the United States to be successful in sports. Success is defined as a degree of measure (Webster's Dictionary). Most athletes measure success in millions of dollars. ...
