3) Writing About The Lottery [Categories: Life Choice, Course Reading, Making Connections]: Please complete the following:
Blog Post Introduction: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson tells the story of the town’s annual gathering for their lottery. The lottery involves the head of each household picking a slip from a black box. The family that received the marked slip then has to bring up every member of their family to pick a slip. The family member with the black dot will then be stoned to death by the people of the town. Literary Analysis: A major theme displayed in the story, The Lottery is hierarchy. This is shown when the men represented the family when they went up to select a slip. The men are seen as higher up than the women and children and are seen as the head of the household. When one of the women, Tessie, arrives late to the lottery she says “Wouldn’t have me leave my dishes in the sink, now, would you Joe?” (Jackson 2). Women in this town are expected to clean, cook and take care of the children. The color black can be seen as a motif throughout the story. Black can be representing ‘death’ or ‘darkness’. The color appears many times like the black box they chose the slip from and the black dot on the slips of paper. Argumentation: For many years the United States has been one of the only countries not using the metric system. The U.S. is different when measuring things such as a person’s weight, teaspoons/tablespoons in recipes and speed limit. This can make it difficult when trading goods with other countries because they follow a different system. The article, America Has Been Struggling With the Metric System For Almost 230 Years, that under President Johnson the Metric Act was passed. The Metric Act is basically a conversion table from the U.S. system to the metric system that could be used for trading. The law doesn’t say the U.S. has to switch to the metric system. I believe this relates to the story because the U.S. is just following the tradition of the people before them just like the people in the town were doing. It would benefit the U.S. to switch to the metric system because it would make trading with other countries easier. They don’t have a reason not to switch to the metric system but they continue to use it because of tradition. Narration: Every year my family spends New Year's Eve with each other and rings in the new year together. This is an important tradition for my family because we have been doing it for as long as I can remember. One year my brother decided he was going to hang out with his friends instead of the family. My mom was a little hesitant to let him go but in the end she said it was okay. All night I could tell my mom was upset that my brother wasn’t there. She really wished the whole family could be together. The next year my friends invited me to their New Year’s Eve party. I was excited to go until I remembered my mom being upset about my brother not being there. I debated on whether or not to go and decided to stay with my family. I didn’t want to break the tradition because I knew how much that it meant to my mom to have the whole family there.
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Blog Post Introduction
The Yellow Wallpaper is a story about a lady who is suffering from nervous depression. Her husband says she needs to be inactive in order to get better and isn’t allowed to do much other than rest and she secretly write. She writes about the bedroom that she is in and becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper and the strange patterns in it. Literary Analysis
Blog Post Introduction
In Lulu Wang’s podcast What You Don’t Know, she discusses her grandmother’s diagnosis with lung cancer and why her family decided to keep it a secret from the grandma. In Chinese culture it is believed that mental and emotional health are both linked to physical health. Therefore if the grandma didn’t know about the cancer she wouldn’t be worrying about it and it could prolong her life. Literary Analysis The author of this story is Lulu Wang, she started as a pianist and later moved to filmmaking. SHe was born in Beijing but grew up in Miami. Her movies tell the stories of people in the international culture that the world has today. What You Don’t Know was published on April 22, 2016. The podcast takes place in China where her grandma lives. This podcast is nonfiction, Lulu has actually experienced this event and decided to share it with everyone. Lulu Wang’s grandma is diagnosed with lung cancer. The family decides not to tell her because they believe it will extend her life if she is unaware that this is happening. The podcast is told from the point of view of Lulu Wang. It is obvious from her tone that she is confused and concerned. She is baffled by her family’s decision not to tell the grandma about the cancer and worried about her grandma’s health especially since the grandma is uninformed about the cancer. The podcast is written in a subjective way, sharing opinions and beliefs that the character in the story are feeling and thinking. The podcast is very serious and shares a lot of emotion as well as intimate relationships that the characters have. I believe the theme in this story is that ‘Not accepting the truth could be beneficial’. A recurring motif in the story was compassion, Lulu felt horrible that they were keeping this secret from their grandma. She often wanted to tell her so she would be informed on what was happening. Argumentation When the results were given that the grandma has cancer, the family had to face the decision of telling her or not. I believe the family made the right decision but it could've also been beneficial to inform the grandma. The grandma never knew therefore she never had to worry about it. If she was stressing over the situation more health issues could have aroused such as depression and anxiety. She may have become so stressed that she stopped eating and then lose weight leading her to becoming ill. Lulu discovers during the situation that the grandma did the same thing to the grandpa when he was diagnosed with cancer a few years earlier. Obviously the grandma would support the family’s decision because she also has done it. It seems as though this is something that occurs in their culture when someone is sick. They believe that mental and emotional health is related to physical health and if she thought about it too much it would actually end her life sooner. I also disagree with the family’s decision in some ways because if the grandma had things that she would like to do before she dies, she wouldn’t be able to do them. Knowing that these could be her last days she would likely live them like they are her last days. The grandma also had cancer before this had happened and she was able to get through it. This shows the grandma is strong and could possibly fight through this cancer if she knew about it. The family made the right decision for them because she ends up living 3 years longer than her 3 month that she was given. Narration My mom is typically the one that makes dinner in my house for my family. She is constantly trying new recipes as well as old recipes that have been past down through the family. She has a favorite dish that she also makes when people are coming over for dinner. Once when someone was visiting they decided to stop over for dinner. My mom thought she should make a new meal and wanted to use one of her mom’s recipe that was very popular. It was just like any other dinner until I overheard a few of my family members talking about how awful the dinner was. I was upset because I knew how proud my mom was after recreating the meal her mom always made. My mom believed that everyone was enjoying the meal but in reality they weren’t. I was left with the dilemma on whether I tell my mom knowing that her feelings would be hurt but also I didn’t want her to hear it from someone else. I assured myself that telling her would be the right thing to do. Although she was embarrassed about the mess up in the recipe she was glad I told her. She continued to work on the recipe until she got it perfect. It was a hard decision but I knew I did the right thing. |
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