Comparing and Contrasting the Lottery and Young Goodman

In the story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, is written in a historical point of view. “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. ” Their main food source is corn and to make sure that the corn will come they have to have human sacrifices. If they don’t they say “First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. ” The corn doesn’t come if they don’t have human sacrifices and they have to eat other food than corn. Shirley Jackson wrote this in a cultural form in this passage. Jackson uses irony and comedy in her story, about how weak human individuals are.

In the story, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, writes in a more linguistic way. He uses many descriptive words and figures of speech. “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree. ” Nathaniel is talking about there being bad things around every corner in life. “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow! ” Nathaniel explains everything so well in his writing and he seems very smart with the words that he uses. Goodman Brown believes that the devil is taking over the minds of the people he loves.

Nathaniel Hawthorne explains that Goodman Brown believes in the goodness of people until he meets the devil. In the stories, The Lottery and Young Goodman Brown, they both are very different but then yet very similar. These stories are different because Shirley Jackson writes in a cultural form and Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in a linguistic form. They both are very good writes and explain things well. Jackson’s writing is deep and kind of dark. Hawthorn’s is very dark especially when Goodman Brown is in the woods. Both of these stories and authors are very good at their work.