This is a great story! Although, I wonder why people would live in a town that participates in a selection act such as this, I think that the moral lessons are of high importance. I have read this story before and so I pretty much knew what was coming from the beginning. Given that, I just wanted everyone in the story to run away from town. I wondered how it could be that for almost 80 years this has been going on in a town and with no contest. But then I thought of the unfair rituals and policies that occur in many communities across the country that have gone unchallenged for even longer.
“The Lottery” begins with a description of the story’s setting. The reader is told that there is an annual impending annual event in this small village and that it is taking place during the summertime. The two men who come in to initialize this annual “lottery” process are Mr. Summer and Mr. Graves [a foreshadowing of the approaching summer graves (tombs/death) or grave (solemn/ serious/ unfortunate outcome) summers.] It is also worth mentioning that the person who forgets to show up is named Clean (perhaps foreshadowing a dirty/ tainted outcome.)The “breathless pause[s]” and people holding their breath due to nerves can also signify lifelessness and the lingering death in the nearby future. When Bill Hutchinson draws the paper, based on his wife Tessie’s reaction, it is finally clear to the reader that it is not a good thing to be the one to draw it. Tessie continually cries about how unfair it was and becomes overly protective. The fact that she is so upset about it leads the reader to believe that she may bear the brunt of this lottery.
The immediate lesson that seems to be reflected in this is that people who go against the grain have to suffer the most. The only one who was affected by this was Tessie (even her family seemed not to be fazed by Tessie’s being selected to be killed.) She was against it and she thought that it was unfair. The conversation that takes place between Mrs. Adams and Old Man Warner further shows that this piece was written to inspire the reader to stand for what they believed in. Mrs. Adams tells him that other villages are giving up the lottery tradition and Old Man Warner says that they are crazy for giving it up—solely based on the fact that it is tradition.
Another lesson that the author may be trying to give is that goes contrary to the Puritan work ethic. Tessie seemed to have been trying to do things right, she had a good conscience and a large family, however she was still the one to be killed. The concept of a lottery determining one’s fate seems to imply that individuals have no control over their lives.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Bernice is Crazy!
This is a great story! It definitely made me think twice about being mean to my annoying cousins. Before she becomes vindictive and attacks her cousin, I sympathize with Marjorie because I can definitely recall a time or two when my family members came to town and it ruined my social life. Family is family, and even though you love them, you don’t have to like them all the time. Although I sympathize with Marjorie, Bernice’s character is fun too. I think that it’s really funny that she chops her cousin’s hair off at the end.
This story is in a sense Fitzgerald’s rendition of the ugly duckling. Bernice (being the homely and anti-social woman that she was) once introduced to Marjorie’s friends and suitors becomes very well liked and even admired by some of them. Bernice agreed to let Marjorie change her into someone who would be better received by the other young people. Bernice changed in many ways, and I think that this is an analysis of identity that implies that it can be fickle and ever changing. In the beginning of the story, Bernice seemed very quiet and nice, but in the end she acts in a very spiteful manner—cutting her cousin’s hair off and tossing it onto the porch of one of her cousin’s suitors. Fitzgerald’s take on identity is that identity isn’t really what defines a person because it is changeable.
This story is in a sense Fitzgerald’s rendition of the ugly duckling. Bernice (being the homely and anti-social woman that she was) once introduced to Marjorie’s friends and suitors becomes very well liked and even admired by some of them. Bernice agreed to let Marjorie change her into someone who would be better received by the other young people. Bernice changed in many ways, and I think that this is an analysis of identity that implies that it can be fickle and ever changing. In the beginning of the story, Bernice seemed very quiet and nice, but in the end she acts in a very spiteful manner—cutting her cousin’s hair off and tossing it onto the porch of one of her cousin’s suitors. Fitzgerald’s take on identity is that identity isn’t really what defines a person because it is changeable.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Updike's "A&P"
I read Updike's “A & P.” I laughed at the end of the story. I’m sure that is not the reaction that he wanted to get from his reader. But I’m no average art critic or media/ literature connoisseur (I laughed watching Saw II). I guess to some degree, I felt bad for the narrator because he quit his job for no reason. He lost his job and he didn’t get the girls. Dag. The things men do to try and impress us! *Sigh.* If they only knew, we don’t want guys without jobs, which means that even if the girls would have saw him quit his job they would not given him the time of day. No girl wants a broke brotha. PS: This story was boring. It was waaay too descriptive and a there lot of pointless jargon. Updike needs to take a lesson from Dickinson and Hughes, simplicity and clarity make for a way better read. Perhaps I should dig a little deeper into this short story, I’m sure that there is something worthwhile; I just didn’t catch it the first time.
The reader doesn’t get too much insight on the details of the narrator’s life. Besides the fact that he is eighteen years old, that he has a family and that he works at A & P, the reader has little to work with. What the reader does know; however, is that the narrator quits his job. He does this in hopes that he will get the attention of the girls who inspired him to quit and so on the surface, it seems as if the narrator from "A & P" quit his job to impress them. However, a closer look at what happens suggests otherwise. In the last sentence of the story, the narrator says that his “stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This implies that since he now understands injustice and realizes that he must stand up for what is right; he accepts the reality that his life will be a lot harder now that he has quit his job in the name of justice. The type of transformation that can be observed in this narrator is shown in the narrator is most apparent in his attitude towards the three girls in the story. In the beginning he describes them as objects and is just an objective observer of them. He labels them “the fat one,” “the chunky one,” etc. This objectivity somehow warps into an affinity for them; the narrator refers to them as “his girls.” The fact that the narrator began the story with “You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?)” but ends up quitting his job to stand up for these girls, demonstrates a genuine transformation.
The reader doesn’t get too much insight on the details of the narrator’s life. Besides the fact that he is eighteen years old, that he has a family and that he works at A & P, the reader has little to work with. What the reader does know; however, is that the narrator quits his job. He does this in hopes that he will get the attention of the girls who inspired him to quit and so on the surface, it seems as if the narrator from "A & P" quit his job to impress them. However, a closer look at what happens suggests otherwise. In the last sentence of the story, the narrator says that his “stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This implies that since he now understands injustice and realizes that he must stand up for what is right; he accepts the reality that his life will be a lot harder now that he has quit his job in the name of justice. The type of transformation that can be observed in this narrator is shown in the narrator is most apparent in his attitude towards the three girls in the story. In the beginning he describes them as objects and is just an objective observer of them. He labels them “the fat one,” “the chunky one,” etc. This objectivity somehow warps into an affinity for them; the narrator refers to them as “his girls.” The fact that the narrator began the story with “You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?)” but ends up quitting his job to stand up for these girls, demonstrates a genuine transformation.
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