The two stories “The Storm” and “The Lottery” both do an excellent job of highlighting the human nature of despair. Although they show different forms of desperation, it is a clear theme for both. In “The Storm,” Kate Chopin writes about the human need for comfort. As the storm rages outside, housewife Calixta worries greatly about her husband and son. Calixta worries so much that she needs comfort, she gets comfort from the closest person willing to comfort her. He happens to be the guy she had past relationships with. Calixta is so desperate for comfort that she rushes to Alcee and momentarily her feelings for him return. If the story ended there, it would not show the full extent of the despair. When the storm passes and the family is reunited again, Chopin writes “The storm passed and everyone was happy” (Paragraph 40). Shirley Jackson writes on the same theme in a different sense. “The Lottery” presents two types of despair: the first is the desperation of the townspeople for their crops. townspeople had been questioning tradition, probably since the beginning of the Lottery. The townspeople knew it was working one way or another, so they kept going. The townspeople knew they needed the crops to live and continue to thrive, but at the same time, they were always taught that the lottery was the way things were done. The second feeling of despair comes from the fact that people knew the lottery was bad. Those who understood this were too desperate to fit in. They realized that going against tradition would result in