Nature Vs. Common Experience Upon Term Paper

" But he did not stayed longer and started on with his journey the animal hesitantly followed him knowing the man was in for a big trouble with that, as he was traveling the harsh weather also began making its mark on the man's body but he wanted to ignore it and in his heart he was also terming the people who tried to stop him from the journey as weak and not brave enough to undertake such adventure "Any man who was a man could travel alone." With the passage of time and journey man realized that he was fighting a losing battle against the nature and admitted the sage's saying "Perhaps the old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right." As one starts reading the story the reader dislikes the man's arrogance and sheer disrespect for nature but also hope for the safe journey of the person and also appreciate the dog's rational behavior that it showed throughout, the ultimate result of the story is same that would have happened to any person with severe disregard for nature in such situation.

The second story 'The Lottery' is by Shirley Jackson, it is a story that is least representative of common experience. It is a story about a small village of about 300 people who gathered annually for the bizarre lottery event. It is a story that is definitely not typical and this lack of typicality does not render it any less effective the reason behind it is that though the whole story had the sinister feel to it from the beginning but the nonchalant treatment by the writer that somehow gives the casual feel to it makes the reader bit confused and at the same time curious enough to find out more about the whole thing that was about to take place there in the village. The date was June 27 all the villagers gathered that day for the lottery but one strange thing they were doing was to gather stones for the occasion "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;... Soon the men began to gather..." As the lottery was about to be opened it was made sure that all the people from the village were present "there was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open" the series of interesting events continued till the family who won the lottery was announced the first sign of something seriously wrong occurred when the woman whose family was declared winner protested "It wasn't fair," Tessie said. Then second round of the lottery was conducted in which ultimate winner from the chosen family was selected, incidentally it was the same woman, she cried further foul play but then the shocking thing took place a stone hit her on the side of the head and then the whole village began closing in on her Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her to the reader's horror it is revealed that the whole lottery was basically an exercise to savagely and ruthlessly kill the chosen person by stoning.

Thus it is concluded that those literary works which develop some bond with the readers by offering certain level of reflection, just as advocated by the Samuel Johnson, are the ones that can endure the test of times and achieve level that could be regarded as class of their own.

Reference:

Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare," Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books, ed. Charles W. Eliot. (New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1938) 208-250.

To Build a Fire' by Jack London

http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html. accessed 11 February 2007

The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html. accessed 11 February 2007.....