The Lottery (Blog 1) Madison Boynton
Last week in class we read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. My role in our discussion group was the passage identifier. For my role, I had to summarize key paragraphs in the story and reflect the most important part and WHY it was important.
In my role, I said that in paragraphs two and three the writing makes the town seem like nothing out of the ordinary. It was a quiet town with children playing with stones and everyone else preoccupied talking and gossiping about things that didn't really matter. The children were laughing and it was summer as school was just getting out.
The passage in the story that I felt was so significant was the second to last paragraph in the story. This is when you start to realize what is happening and this isn't a lottery where someone walks away with prize money or bragging rights rather than someone is walking away murdered. I think that it is important to realize that they were so used to the idea of stoning someone for the harvest that they almost seemed excited. Old man Warners hurries everyone to start throwing their rocks and I think that is because if anyone were to wait and think about what they were actually doing they would force themselves to realize they were killing someone for the no other fact that it was a tradition.
To answer question five on the reflection sheet, I compared Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" to the Holocaust. Just like what happened during the Holocaust, the people in this town were actually committing a similar crime against humanity.
In my role, I said that in paragraphs two and three the writing makes the town seem like nothing out of the ordinary. It was a quiet town with children playing with stones and everyone else preoccupied talking and gossiping about things that didn't really matter. The children were laughing and it was summer as school was just getting out.
The passage in the story that I felt was so significant was the second to last paragraph in the story. This is when you start to realize what is happening and this isn't a lottery where someone walks away with prize money or bragging rights rather than someone is walking away murdered. I think that it is important to realize that they were so used to the idea of stoning someone for the harvest that they almost seemed excited. Old man Warners hurries everyone to start throwing their rocks and I think that is because if anyone were to wait and think about what they were actually doing they would force themselves to realize they were killing someone for the no other fact that it was a tradition.
To answer question five on the reflection sheet, I compared Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" to the Holocaust. Just like what happened during the Holocaust, the people in this town were actually committing a similar crime against humanity.
Hi Madison, nice connections you are making here. I would like you to flesh out a bit more the connection you are making to the Holocaust. What was is the crime being committed and who is complicit in this crime? How might you make connections from these points to the historical event you describe?
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