Just Another Holiday in The Lottery Anyone with the slightest knowledge of history, or current events, must be aware of many events, where, in time of turmoil, society has had a tendency to seize upon a scapegoat as means of resolution. Countless politicians, military leaders, corporate executives and school administrators frequently use this proven technique. The people of the small village were very similar to the leaders of our society. The village people believed that someone had to be sacrificed to insure a good crop. "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon", said Old Man Warner. It is scary to realize the similarities in the reasoning of the villagers and the reasoning employed today. The villagers are aware that the sacrifice is inhumane but none want to stand and voice their opinion, for fear of going against societys standards and being outcast or being stoned. "Its not the way it used to be," Old Man Warner said clearly. "People aint the way they used to be." The population fears that if they go against society they might be chosen as the lottery winner - or they fear that it would disrupt their corn season. "Some places have already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools." In stoning Tessie, the villagers treat her as a scapegoat onto which they can project and repress their own temptations to rebel. The only person who shows their rebellious attitude is Tessie. She does not appear to take the ritual seriously, as she comes rushing to the square because she "clean forgot what day it was". The villagers are aware of her rebellious attitude and they are weary that she may be a possible cause for their crops not to be plentiful. "It isnt fair, it isnt right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. One can understand how traditions are easily lost through the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another. Traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause dreadful consequences to occur. Although "the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remembered to use stones" to kill the forgetful woman. Does a society just pick and choose which part of a tradition they want to keep? One tends to remember the actions and the objects necessary to proceed with a ritual, but one may forget the purpose or the reason behind it. Is one correct in continuing a tradition even though there is a victim involved? The individual, as part of a society, is afraid of ridicule. If one ends a tradition, and society still behaves in the manner they were taught, then ridicule will be the result. "The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions," shows that the meaning and purpose behind the ritual had been lost and the society just acting it out through repetition. The villagers, who remember some bits of history about those forgotten aspects of the ritual, arent even definite about the accuracy of their beliefs. Some believe that the "official of the lottery should stand" a certain way when he sang the chant, others believe that he should "walk among the people". No one exactly remembers the how and why of the tradition, most have become completely desensitized to the murderous rituals. Because the adults have forgotten the traditions history, the children know even less and they are desensitized to murder, thinking its just another fun holiday like Christmas.
The people of a small village in New england practiced a very deadly tradition. Every year they would participate in what was called the lottery, Every adult would randomly select a white piece of paper from an old black box and hope that it was not marked with a black dot, for there was no money at the end of this lottery rather death awaited the unlucky drawer. The victim would be stoned by everyone in the village until they died. This tradition had been carried out for years, generation after generation countless people would be wrongfully stoned to death and the only explanation for this inhumane activity was “It 's what we’ve always done”. “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago … no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson), It was almost as if the people of this village were afraid of change, afraid that is would somehow disturbed the atmosphere and upset their great ancestors, it was almost as if the lottery was their sacrificial offering to maintain peace within themselves. The idea of groupthink was missing in the story, no form of communication was made concerning this absurd tradition, those who tried to bring it were disregarded, this supports the dictatorship side of groupthink, the one where only one person (the mayor) would speak and everyone else would obey without
A multitude of indications in this story verify or support the natural aversion to violence. The villagers naturally distance themselves from symbols of death and violence when they exert uncorrupted independent thought. This is evident in the following sentences from “The Lottery”, “They stood together away from the pile of stones in the corner”; “The villagers kept their distance, leaving space between themselves and the stool.” When Mr. Summers asks for assistance with the black box, we r...
This article does two things successfully; it raises awareness of an important problem and communicates exactly how the problem will affect the world. Barlow’s argument uses pathos and logos to push her ideals on her audience. However, while her use of appeals stimulates, it fails to finish with a final solution to solve the previously posed problem.
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When talking about communities that have given up the tradition of choosing one person to stone to death, "Old Man Warner snorted, 'Pack of crazy fools' he said. 'Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."'" (Jackson, The Granta... Page 66) This tradition causes the people of the town to destroy each other instead of working together to destroy the tradition.
And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles.” This quote shows how naive and innocent young children are, and how, because of this, they are more vulnerable to peer pressure than adults. This quote is stating that someone gave Davy some stones, which were to be used to assist in the stoning of his own mother. This shows how heartless people can be, and also how negative issues, traditions, and events can be overlooked, and in some ways that may be overseen, it is even encouraged.
In effect, there is a significant amount of emphasis put on death of the culture. The story begins with very simple, seemingly unimportant details and evolves into undeniable facts that lead the reader against their own understanding. "The morning of July 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richlly green." This town is presented with the contention that is is extremely superstitious; the townspeople adhere to tradition unconsciously out of habit, "The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions: most of them were quite; wetting their lips, not looking around." This small-town village which savors on tradition turns a pleasurable and exhilarating lottery into a terrible and repulsive act of cruelty: "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the or...
Shakespeare’s portrayal of power reflects the conflicting influences of Medieval Morality plays and Renaissance literature during the Tudor period, demonstrating that the text is a reflection of contextual beliefs. The Third Citizen’s submission to a monotheistic deity in the pathetic fallacy of “The water swell before a boisterous storm – but leave it all to God” qualifies the theological determinism of power due to the rise of Calvinism. Pacino embodies Richard’s desire for royalty in LFR through the emphasis on celebrity culture, as he is determined to film himself in close-up, which although emphasizes the importance of Pacino, leaves out the broader scene. Soliloquies are substituted with breaches in the fourth wall, and his metatheatrical aside to the audience “I love the silence… whatever I’m saying, I know Shakespeare said it”, subverts the cultural boundaries which, deter contemporary American actors in performing Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s breach of the iambic pentameter in “Chop off his head…And when I’m king” strengthens the Renaissance influence, as Richa...
“The Lottery” is an exceptional short story because of Shirley Jackson’s intended message. The message is meaningful in how individuals uphold traditions in their life. The custom that the village people practice is shocking since they stone to death the member in their community who wins the lottery. The members in the community exhibit how their tradition has developed into a meaningless habit. This issue is comparable to the tradition of slavery in the early 1600’s in the United States. The author’s idea in this story was to illustrate how morality can become insignificant and how traditions can become inconsistent when thoughtlessly following tradition.
Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” Although falling apart and scarcely embodying a box anymore, the people appear to have boastfulness in the ceremonious lottery and have this forceful belief and certainty that the box’s necessity must not change. This forceful belief implies that the villagers fear change. They grasp securely to a fragment of the ritual that persist, horrified to modify even the most superficially irrelevant piece of it. Another example of where we are introduced to the damaging influence that unchallenged/unquestioned dogma has on an entity's life and death in a community is when half way through the story Jackson writes, “Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally.” This occurred right before the drawing of the names, where Mrs. Dunbar is asked if her son, Horace, will be participating for the family in the absence of Mr. Dunbar. The question was meaningless and had no purpose besides “tradition” but it is still asked although everyone knows Horace is still too young to participate. Although certain measures of the ritual have changed such as wooden chips are now slips of paper, the people in the village have no regularity in what rules they deem to follow and cherry-pick which ones to remove
... mentioned) (Zvi, n.d: 87). However, the modern historical-critical analysis mentioned described Sennacherib as a successful military leader (which enabled him to conquer his enemies) (Kalimi and Richardson, 2014: 226). Therefore, it sufficed to deduce that the Zvi (n.d) used empirical evidence.
...ay be due to reduced size and total volume of pores. Not much difference was found between addition of NS or MS to these concretes.[16]
Marketing, advertising, and the media all try to influence the way our generation dresses. Their reasons are mainly profit based. We also make our clothing choices based on the Functionality of the garment. Consumers of our generation often look at the comfort, durability, and adaptability of a piece before purchasing. History has had a great influence on the look of most clothing worn today. Clothes reminiscent of the past are often known as "retro" which has become one of the signature styles of Generation Y. Clothing also helps us to express ourselves. Youth often choose clothing to reflect their unique personality. These factors are explained further below.
It is for the reasons above that I believe that euthanasia should be legalized under the premise that the patient must have terrible quality of life and be suffering from a terminal illness and that a physician will administer the injection under the direction of two other physicians as to stop the possibility of misdiagnoses. I also believe that a person who has been in a coma or on life support but still has no chance of survival also have the right to euthanasia. Euthanasia is a hotly debated topic as it can make someone questions their deepest belief into what they believe is the meaning of living.
Being prepared is a key step in being able to manage time. There are a lot of things that go with being prepared. First, you have to have an idea of what you want to do. Knowing what you are getting into helps a lot because you will be able to focus on specific points that will ensure that you are headed in the right direction of achieving your goal. This sounds pretty easy, but it is a task that a lot of people overlook. You may need material to ensure that you can do your task at hand, so knowing exactly what is going on will definitely help. Getting yourself in a proper place to be able to concentrate and execute what you have in mind is also a very important step. Not having a million and one distraction will allow you to focus and get everything done in a time...