Summary Of The Devil And Miss Prym And Shirley Jacksons...

Paulo Coelho, writer of The Devil and Miss Prym and Shirley Jackson, writer of â€Å"The Lottery†, both reiterate the idea that a democratic government can be very dangerous if wrong propositions are voted upon by a public. Likewise in both stories, wrong decisions are made by society, and bring conflict and chaos to a village. People are put in a life or death scenario, and little or nothing could be done because society chose to believe that doing wrong was justified morally. In The Devil and Miss Prym, a young girl by the name of Chantal is put in a difficult situation when a stranger comes into the small village of Viscos. The stranger brings an evil proposition to her and the rest of Viscos that would bring the evil out of everyone.†¦show more content†¦The one chosen is to be stoned by the town people. Even though this would seem unfair, it was believed that such tradition would keep a stable environment among the crops and the town itself. In the end, a mother by the name of Tessie Hutchinson is chosen to be stoned. In both stories the main types of conflict are between people versus society. Some would argue this is the worst type of conflict because it is a single person against a democratic government or societal group where everyone is opposed to your point of view. Even if the wrong decisions are being made, little or nothing can be done since everyone voted upon it. In The Devil and Miss Prym, Chantal is opposed to killing anyone for money. She saw these actions inhuman, especially when killing an old lady who did not deserve to die in that way. Chantal goes against Viscos and uses fear as a way to stop them from executing the murder. She states that getting the money after the murder wasn’t going to be as easy as it seemed, and that authorities will get involved once they go and cash in the gold bricks. Meaning they would get caught sooner or later for committing a murder and the consequences were going to be much severe t han expected. Little by little, the views of the town people started to change and one by one everyone started to leave back home. (Coelho, 190-197). Coelho also demonstrates person versus society when Chantal is held responsible for