The Lottery
Today, Ms Soh gave out a short story called "The Lottery". It was those type of books which required readers to fully understand the story and not just look at things superficially. After I read the story for the first time, I was stumped. It was such(in my opinion) a warped story. Bewildered, I questioned Ms Soh about it. She then told me to read deeper into the story and look for important quotes. I did just that. I read the story again slowly, looking for important quotes. And all of a sudden, it hit home.
Aha! " 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' " In that particular time, people were superstitious and believed that stoning a person would bring good harvest to the village. Old Man Warner personally believes that stopping the lottery would bring bad luck. He is one that believes in following the order of things and never questions the reason behind them.
Surprisingly, Shirley Jackson artfully used name symbology. As I did not know much about names, I decided to do some simple research. Apparently, "Martin," Bobby’s surname, derives from a Middle English word signifying ape or monkey. This, juxtaposed with "Harry Jones" (in all its commonness) and "Dickie Delacroix" (of-the-Cross) urges us to an awareness of the Hairy Ape within us all, veneered by a Christianity as perverted as "Delacroix," vulgarized to "Dellacroy" by the villagers. Horribly, at the end of the story, it will be Mrs. Delacroix, warm and friendly in her natural state, would encourage the others to attack Tessie. "Mr. Adams," at once progenitor and martyr in the Judeo-Christian myth of man, stands with "Mrs. Graves"—the ultimate refuge or escape of all mankind—in the forefront of the crowd.
Another quote I found intriguing was "It isn't fair, it isn't right." All her life, Tessie had been throwing stones at the people unlucky enough to get the slip of paper all her life. However, now that she knew she was about to get killed, she panicked and started shouting about how it wasn't fair and that they should restart the lottery. I think this sorts of brings out the topic about human hypocrisy and the famous quote about "do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you". As said by Ms Soh, Tessie throwed stones as a kid, a teenager and an adult. Now that she would be the one getting killed, what right did she have to say that it wasn't fair?
There is another interesting fact. The sentence "selecting the smoothest and roundest stones" apparently means that the death would be more painful as there would be more bruises and the agony would last longer. To think that children at such a young age could actually think of such a notion makes me feel alarmed and shocked.
At the point of sounding cruel, I was actually glad that Tessie would be the one getting killed and not the other family members. This is because she actually wanted more people(her two married daughters )to be included so that she could increase her chances of surviving. This disgusts me as it is unacceptable to actually include your family members into something this risky so that you can survive. I am also not saying that she should make the choice to die for her family members, but that she should just let things happen and not involve more people.
As usual, I would love to see your comments.+)
Aha! " 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' " In that particular time, people were superstitious and believed that stoning a person would bring good harvest to the village. Old Man Warner personally believes that stopping the lottery would bring bad luck. He is one that believes in following the order of things and never questions the reason behind them.
Surprisingly, Shirley Jackson artfully used name symbology. As I did not know much about names, I decided to do some simple research. Apparently, "Martin," Bobby’s surname, derives from a Middle English word signifying ape or monkey. This, juxtaposed with "Harry Jones" (in all its commonness) and "Dickie Delacroix" (of-the-Cross) urges us to an awareness of the Hairy Ape within us all, veneered by a Christianity as perverted as "Delacroix," vulgarized to "Dellacroy" by the villagers. Horribly, at the end of the story, it will be Mrs. Delacroix, warm and friendly in her natural state, would encourage the others to attack Tessie. "Mr. Adams," at once progenitor and martyr in the Judeo-Christian myth of man, stands with "Mrs. Graves"—the ultimate refuge or escape of all mankind—in the forefront of the crowd.
Another quote I found intriguing was "It isn't fair, it isn't right." All her life, Tessie had been throwing stones at the people unlucky enough to get the slip of paper all her life. However, now that she knew she was about to get killed, she panicked and started shouting about how it wasn't fair and that they should restart the lottery. I think this sorts of brings out the topic about human hypocrisy and the famous quote about "do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you". As said by Ms Soh, Tessie throwed stones as a kid, a teenager and an adult. Now that she would be the one getting killed, what right did she have to say that it wasn't fair?
There is another interesting fact. The sentence "selecting the smoothest and roundest stones" apparently means that the death would be more painful as there would be more bruises and the agony would last longer. To think that children at such a young age could actually think of such a notion makes me feel alarmed and shocked.
At the point of sounding cruel, I was actually glad that Tessie would be the one getting killed and not the other family members. This is because she actually wanted more people(her two married daughters )to be included so that she could increase her chances of surviving. This disgusts me as it is unacceptable to actually include your family members into something this risky so that you can survive. I am also not saying that she should make the choice to die for her family members, but that she should just let things happen and not involve more people.
As usual, I would love to see your comments.+)
posted by Xavier the Confused at 9:21 PM
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