Rhetorical Analysis Between The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron

Edgar Escobedo
Mr.Cook
Honors ELA
November 20th 2014

Many times in literature, authors use specific rhetorical devices to create intended
themes, tones, and symbols. Two stories that do this are The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. In both short stories, the use of juxtaposition

and symbolism affect the tone and character development, which ultimately convey the
theme that morality is power.
In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, juxtaposition is used to create the feeling of
sympathy. The story is about a community who come together to have their annual lottery.
In this event, stones are collected. Shirley Jackson demonstrates juxtaposition by having
two different groups with two different amounts of power. Jackson writes, It isnt fair, it
isnt right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon here (Jackson 7). Tessie
Hutchinson has less power than her community. Jackson writes, The pile of stones the
boys had made earlier was ready...Tessie...was in the center of a clear space by now, and
she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her (Jackson 7). Jackson
uses the two differences in powers to create create the feeling of sympathy towards Tessie
because she is going against a greater power than herself.
In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses juxtaposition to create the tone of
optimism. The story is about how the government pushes equality on society using
handicaps. Vonnegut uses juxtaposition when putting a free man with a society full of
handicapped people. Vonnegut writes, Harrison smashed his headphones and the
spectacles against the wall he flung away his rubber-ball nose...and then, in an explosion
of joy and grace, into the air they sprang...the laws of gravity [were abandoned] (Vonnegut
12). Vonnegut then writes, They were equal every which way. Nobody was better looking
than anybody else (Vonnegut 7). Kurt Vonnegut uses the handicapped society and
Harrison to create the tone of optimism because if one person was able to be free, it creates
the opportunity for many more to be free as well.

In both short stories, juxtaposition is used to create a specific tone. These two examples
demonstrates that the use of juxtaposition intentionally creates specific tones.
In The Lottery, Jackson uses the stones to portray conforming in society which
adds to the character development of Davy Hutchinson. Jackson writes, Davy put his hand
into the box and laughed (Jackson 6). Davy is an innocent boy who does not know what he
is doing. Shirley Jackson writes, Someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few peebles
(Jackson 7). The stones demonstrate conforming to society Davy participates in the
tradition because it is normal in his society. This symbolism also creates the theme that
morality is power.
In Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut uses a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun as a
symbol for power and adds to who Glampers really is. In the story, Diana Moon Glampers is
introduced to the audience at the end of the story and is only talked about in two brief
paragraphs. The fact that the audience is presented with few details about Diana Moon
Glampers deprives the reader about who she really is. In the story, Glampers came into the
studio with a double-barreled- ten-gauge shotgun...fired twice[then] loaded the gun
again. She aimed for the musicians and told them that they had ten seconds to get their
handicaps back on (Vonnegut 13). The shotgun represents power, it reveals that Glampers
likes have power, she uses her own means of handicaps to enforce quality. The shotgun
also creates the theme that morality is power.
When Vonnegut and Jackson use symbolism and juxtaposition, they help create the
theme that morality is power. In both stories, morality is portrayed in two different ways.
In The Lottery, it was moral to participate in the annual tradition of stoning a person of
the community. The text states, The people had done it so many times that they only half

listened to the directions (Jackson 4). The tradition is normal and nobody in the
community feels that what they are doing is bad. It is the right thing to do which gives the
community the power in the story because this tradition is followed by the whole
community. Even though Tessie tried to go against the community, her decision was not
moral in her society. In Harrison Bergeron, the norm is to have everybody equal because
without equality, people would be living in the dark ages (Vonnegut 9). Vonnegut writes,
Everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldnt like that, would you
(Vonnegut 9). Diana Moon Glampers is supported because she was keeping equality by
killing Harrison because the dark ages was when people were fighting for looks,
intelligent, and athletic abilities. Glampers made the moral decision because she was
protecting society from the dark ages (Vonnegut 9). In both stories, the, morals decisions,
even when they are not correct now, they give them power to Glampers and the society.
Both Vonnegut and Jackson do an outstanding job of creating intentional themes.
Without rhetorical devices, creating the theme of morality is power, would be harder. Tone
helps create a certain theme because if you have a negative tone, the theme can portray the
negativity of the tone. In the two short stories, juxtaposition and symbolism were used to
create tone and help add to character development. Vonnegut and Jackson used both
rhetorical devices, which created similar tones and themes.
Work Cited
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. The Lottery and Other Stories. New York: Farrar,
19991. 291-301. Print.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. Welcome to the Monkey House. New York:ISBN,
1950. Print

Edgar,

It is good to see what your essay looks like under your own powers of writing.
How did the break from the five paragraph essay structure go for you? My best advice
for you now is to focus on revision. You need to build up the endurance to critically
reread all of your writing and scrutinize it for mistakes. Your writing is still in the B
stages because of little mistakes that you could have caught.

GRADE: 44/50