"A Rose for Emily"- William Faulkner

     I found Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" quite creepy.  Not only are the plot elements out of the ordinary, I question the perspective from which the story is told.  The story is told in first person plural with the "we" seemingly representing society as a whole.  The story is biased by the .  The story materializes out of thin air.  The audience knows not the difference between reality and exaggeration derived from societal gossip.  The entirety of my doubt manifests from one single quotation from the beginning of the second section:

"After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all" (Faulkner, 283)

     

     From this, the unreliability of the source is presented.  The narrator(s) had little verbal connection to Emily Grierson.  Therefore, the accuracy of the information about Emily's life can be called into question.  Additionally, Emily's manservant rarely speaks to anyone weakening the narrator's/s' case.  The entire short story is based on careful observation/stalking.  Emily's house and her movement into, out of, and within are closely scrutinized.  Throughout the story and throughout her life, it seems as if nothing Emily does is ever good enough, and the "I can't win with these people" mindset is set in her at an early age.  

"The Lottery"-Shirley Jackson

      I think it's obvious that Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games, took a few notes from Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.  If not, the similarities are uncanny.  Both have an annual event that ends in the unjust persecution of innocent man or woman.  The entire town (district) attends this event praying they are not pulled from the "black box"/"reaping bowl".  However similar, these two stories have one major difference.  While the Hunger Games are a punishment, the lottery is a result of tradition.
 
  "Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (Jackson, 265).   

    The stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson is a direct result of the pointless tradition upheld by this small village.  At no point within the short story is the purpose of the execution presented.  Even as Old Man Warner and Mr. Adams discuss the possibility of the lottery's ending in the north village, the audience never learns why this village still does/ever participated in it.  At first, it seems as if this village is only sympathetic towards children as one's name is put into the box at a certain age.  However, the audience quickly learns that not even the children are safe.  The most surprising aspect of this story, for me, stems from the apathetic nature of the citizens as they close in to stone Mrs. Hutchinson to death.  They view the killing as a civil responsibility rather than a moral grievance.

“Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” 
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book