“Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.” This quote was written by Ayn Rand. The meaning of this quote is that the upper class was important in the past, but now in the future, the middle class will be the important class.It relates to the story because in Russia during this time period, the upper class was the important class and the lower class had no rights. Anton Chekhov is the author of “The Bet”, “The Lottery Ticket”, and “Oh! The Public”. Anton was from Russia and in the three stories he represents Russia from 1881 to 1896. He also slides in his life experiences and things that had to do with him in his stories. The theme, class structure, is shown in the stories “Oh! The Public, The Bet, and The Lottery Ticket” during the times of 1881 to 1896. In the story “Oh! The Public”, Anton Chekhov made class structure as one of the themes for this story. Class structure is shown in this story because the two main characters are from different classes. The ticket collector is from a lower class because he is a working poor. The invalid is from the middle class. In the story “Oh! The Public”, the ticket collector, Podtyagin, meets an invalid. He asks for his ticket and the passenger starts complaining about how ill he is and why don’t they let him sleep. All Podtyagin is trying to do is collect his ticket, but the invalid still complains. Two gentlemen came in and threatened Podtyagin to leave him alone and apologize. Podtyagin listens because he doesn’t want to lose his job. The ticket collector is in the lower class, the invalid is in the middle class, and the two gentlemen who were a colonel and an engineer, are from the upper class. Podtyagin know that if he refused to leave the invalid alone, he would... ... middle of paper ... ...till exist today, and there are many people who really have hope to win the lottery ticket. It’s really not a big difference in the US and in Russia. In both countries, there’s people like the couple in the story, who wish they could win the lottery. Class Structure is shown in the stories “Oh! The Public, The Lottery Ticket, and The Bet during the times of 1881 to 1896. Anton Chekhov, the author of these stories, wrote the stories to represent Russia during the time period of 1881 to 1896. The higher class was the most important class, and the lower class received no respect. The higher class didn’t care what they wasted their money on, while the middle class had hope to win the lottery and be in the upper class. The working poor just want to do their job, but the other two classes make it hard. “Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.”
Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" presents conflict on more than one level. The most important conflict in the story is between the subject matter and the way the story is told. From the beginning Jackson takes great pains to present her short story as a folksy piece of Americana. Slowly it dawns on us, the terrible outcome of what she describes.
“The Lottery" is a story of tradition and the weakness to see past it. There are about 300 people in this small village. The oldest man in this story is 77 and the tradition dates back before his time so that the village can have a good harvest. No matter the age, any person in this village with the black do will get killed. Tessie Hutchinson tries to slim
...s tale turns into an attack on the ridiculous, heartless nature of Russian society – especially Russian in civil service. Gogol portrays the trivialness of this through the use of distinct contrasts, mostly between how the poor official in this tale sees his prized overcoat, and how his fellow workers view it, and him, with scorn and mocking laughter. It is not a pleasant tale, and there is no happy ending. But it is effective in how well it presents the absurdities of life at this time in St. Petersburg.
I will explore how social classes frankly appear and build up the story of the book by comparing and contrast with a modern social hierarchy. Today, we’re living in a society with social classes existing. We can be classified in different classes and so do I. I wish I could designate my social status, but unfortunately, our social classes are usually determined by wealth (income), occupation, education and prestige. Social class can be shown in a pyramid structure and it usually comprises with upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class and lower class.
'The Lottery'; is started out by being described as 'The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day.'; The flowers are blooming and the children have just gotten out of school for the summer. To the everyday reader this story starts out as a pleasant one but there is much more in store for the reader at the end of the story. Th setting leads the reader to believe that this is your normal kind of town with normal people. But it isn't until the end that the reader finds out that winning the lottery might not be as good as they thought it was.
...erie fact about the ending of this story, none of the people realize how wicked and vicious they are acting. The lottery is undeniably a part of their lives; it is without a doubt an event they look forward to doing year after year.
When we as human beings are born into this world, there are things that we have control over, and other things that we have no say in. We control what we do with our lives, what schools to attend, what activities to be a part of, and who we marry, for example. This seems to be quite fair, and for the most part, we take it for granted. While we do have these kinds of freedoms, there are other aspects of life that we have no control over. One thing that we are born into, is our social class. No matter who you are, there is a social class that you fall into, and you really have no say in it. The one social class that seems to be the most populated is the middle, or working class. These people usually classify themselves as being as normal, or as ordinary as they come. While that seems to be the common thought, there are plenty of middle class families that aren't as normal as they think. Depending on what class you belong to, your perception of "normal" tends to vary. So what exactly is "normal" to the average, middle, working class family?
When we first broke into our groups, I was a bit confused as to why we were doing this exercise. I thought that it was probably had to do with sharing ideas of being in a privileged socioeconomic status so we could merge groups afterward and share what we brainstormed, which turned out to be correct. I wasn’t surprised to be included in the middle-upper class group because for where I stood during the “privilege line” activity. One difference that was noted in our group was how it felt to be in the middle-upper class group. I said that I felt a bit of pride because the reason for why I was in this class was because of how my mother worked to overcome oppression. Other people said they felt guilty because they didn’t have to work for anything they had today, and almost everything they had was inherited. I now understand why they felt that way because of the reading for this week.
"The Lottery" is a short story that shows just how disturbing the human mind can be at times. As the story proceeds it builds the reader up till the end where what you thought was going to happen did not turn out that way. But is that not how our lives are portrayed? Do we not build ourselves up to society believing what they say and do until the matter is put into our hands? Mrs. Hutchinson was a follower of society just like we are. Everyday was the same routine and every year she played the lottery just like all of the other town people. But this year would be a very different year for Mrs. Hutchinson because her chance at the lottery was about to happen. Now as a reader in this day, we would think of the lottery to be a great prize to receive but not during the days of these town people.
“The Lottery” was quite disturbing to read. It is an very unusual story that has an ending that will have you baffled. You will want to reread certain parts to see if there is anything thing that you could have missed. The title of the short story is also misleading. In most cases the lottery is a good thing. People don’t win punishment and lotteries don’t hurt them. But in this story it does just that. The author did a great job of telling how anyone and everyone can follow tradition blindly. It is dangerous not to have a mind of your own and to just follow the crowd even if you don’t understand on agree on why something is happening.
If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.
One of the most important parts when using a Marxist perspective to examine a piece of literature is the investigation of the various social classes that exist within the writing. Doing so enables the reader to achieve a more globalized perspective on the story, with factors such as economic advantages and hierarchical relations being taken into consideration. The social classes that are represented in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening are the Bourgeoisie, who control every aspect of society, and the Proletariat, whose oppression supports the lifestyles of the elite.
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson opens on a warm June day in unnamed village where people are waiting for the annual event which is the lottery. This ‘tradition’ is also held in other surrounding towns for a long time. Everyone in the town, including the children, participates in this event, yet not all of them are satisfied about it. Meanwhile some people show their dissatisfaction, yet they are unable to criticize this act directly. During the process of the lottery, which does not take more than couple of hours, some of the characters such as Mrs. Dunbar , Mr. and Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Hutchinson question the lottery, yet they are not voicing their protest clearly. This vagueness in showing dissatisfaction is related to the idea that most of the people in the town are accepting this ‘outdated’ trad...
Social class has been a central theme in many famous literary works, that it is hardy a shock for anyone to read about it. Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, Scott FitzGerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, and Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations” for instance are just some of the many novels centralizing social class.