Dangerous Game

African Americans have come a long way in America. Fictional stories are just one gateway for some people to express themselves and others to relate to and escape from normal, everyday life. the two stories "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell we see different conflicts that come to play, the different ways each major character experiences conflict, and how these conflicts are eventually resolved.

In the short story "The Lottery" a small village of about three hundred people plays in this story. The author describes a quiet friendly and loving little town where everyone knows everyone else's business. As the story goes on the town is assembling in the middle of the town for what they refer to as the lottery. This event happens every year and we soon find out, from the reactions of the the winner of the "lottery", that it is not something someone wants to win. The village gathers, viciously making jokes and chatting. The Hutchinson family was the unfortunate winners of the first round and then they had to pick among themselves. Mrs. Hutchinson makes an accusation that her husband simply did not have enough time to draw a good slip of paper. This was the first conflict in this story. A woman, who previously had no objections to this yearly event, is now protesting the unfairness of the outcome because she was the unfortunate one. By reading this story you begin to wonder what the lottery really I because if it was really a lottery that would be the wrong response to a good thing. The tension in the story rises as the Hutchinson family prepares to draw again within their family, presenting the second conflict. People in the crowd announce who they do not want to win and they hold their breaths when the youngest Hutchinson child draws first, hoping it is not him. It is soon revealed that Mrs. Hutchinson has been the unlucky winner of this year's lottery.

Mrs. Hutchinson, or Tessie, begins suffering conflict the minute her family's name was drawn. She begins to realize the cruelty and horrific irony behind this village tradition and does not want to go through with it since she was the one who was picked. "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson and "The Most Dangerous Game" written by Richard Connell share a common theme of violence and cruelty. In "The Most Dangerous Game" humans are hunted, as mere animals, to serve as the perfect prey to satisfy a desire for challenge. In "The Lottery" the townspeople are forced to participate in a ritual that will result in the death of an unwilling participant to satisfy a belief that the sacrifice of one of their own will guarantee a bountiful harvest. By comparison, the elements of violence and cruelty demonstrate the self-centeredness that abounds in each story.

The Taking of Life for Personal Satisfaction In "The Most Dangerous Game,"