The lottery

Greg Kaspar Compare and contrast of “ The Lottery” & “ The Necklace” In Shirley Jackson’s ” The Lottery” the objects in the story all foreshadow the story’s dark undertone. But in Guy De Mauppasant’s ” The Necklace,” Mathilde’s life is defined in the moment after the ball, when she looks in the mirror and discovers the loss of the necklace. These stories are similar and different in many ways. There are many comparisons between “ The Lottery” and “ The Necklace”. First, In “ The Lottery” when Tessi saw the black dot on her paper she looked at it like she couldn’t believe it and she had to somehow persuade the people to not stone her to death by re-drawing names. Just like in “ The Necklace” when Mathilde lost the necklace she couldn’t believe what she had done and now she had to find someway to replace it. Another similarity was that Tessi, from “ The Lottery”, and Mathilde, from “ The necklace”, were living pretty normal lives before their mishaps occurred. Last similarity is that both women were both excited for something, Mathilde excited for going to the ball and Tessi was excited to see who won the lottery (which is not winning to me). There are many contrasts or differences between “ The Lottery” and “ The Necklace”. First, in “ The Lottery” when people were drawing the paper out of the box they all awaited nervously until the whole lottery was done. But in “ The Necklace”, when Mathilde lost her friend’s necklace she wasn’t nervous she was freaking out, she didn’t know what to do, so she had a plan to rack up money and buy another necklace that looked about the same. Another difference is that “ The Lottery” takes place in the town’s square while in “ The Necklace” it takes place in Mathilde’s house. Last difference is that in “ The Lottery” someone is killed and the population is stable every year, and in Mathilde’s story no one dies and the population is still rising, at least I would assume so.