evil and charm

A detailed Summary of evil and charm

Evil and charm are considered by many people to be very different things. It is not often that it is thought that evil and charm coexist together. Evil is defined to be; morally bad, or wicked, while charms definition is; a trait that fascinates, allures or delights. According to British author Brian Masters "evil is something you recognize immediately you see it: it works through charm." Masters' argument can be backed up through two pieces of literature, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily." Both stories display evil and charm coexisting together in a society through setting, character's attitudes and symbolism.

"The Lottery" is a somewhat sick, twisted story that sets the reader up with the right and then pops them one with the left. To begin, the setting makes the reader feel all warm and good inside, and gives the reader the feeling that the story is going to be a cheerful one. "The morning of June 27 was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." (Jackson 229) Here, the author shows that summer is just beginning, and that with summer, life is just beginning. The flowers are blossomin

g, the grass is a rich shade of green, and the town's people are gathering in the square between the post office and the bank. The descriptions of the town are very misleading to the reader in terms of what is taking place. The charm of the town delights the reader at the start and gives the reader a comforting feeling about what is going to happen. The evil of the town is hidden behind a mask of charm.

The characters in "The Lottery" are very misleading to the reader in terms of character traits. The characters attitudes towards the lottery are very upbeat and display that the characters have no problem with the fact that they are attending a lottery. The fact that a lottery is taking place leads many to believe that there is a chance to win money for free. Where in this case it is the chance to kill someone by stoning him or her to death. Throughout the whole story the town's peoples attitudes are lackadaisical; they don't care about the lottery, and seem to only want it over with. "The whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon diner." (Jackson 229) Here it is seen that the lottery something insignificant and meaningless to the towns people. Evil is definitely displayed here, as the event that is being organized and will take place is considered to be morally bad. The charm of the people involved shines through brightly in character traits that are displayed. It is displayed that the persons involved in the event are excited to be there and delightful towards the fact that they are about to kill a person.

The attitude of the narrator displays to the reader that the town is drawn to the life of Emily. The whole town has an idea on what type of life Emily led, but their image of Emily is created through gossip and assumptions that were made as a result of the lack of time Emily spent out in the public. The town assumes that Emily has a problem with maintaining a clean house and ass

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Approximate Word count = 1368
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English