The Lottery

Title: The Lottery
Author: Shirley Jackson
Date: 10/30/08


Prereading: What is justice?
-Justice is when one recieves the freedom and rights that all others have and are able to have.
-Easter is always with my moms side of the family.
-Father's Day is spent working at St. Romans Festival while my dad golfs.
-Fourth of July is always spent with my cousin Rachel.
-Labor Day is spent with my cousins swimming and being the last out of the pool.
-Thanksgiving is always spent with my moms side of the family.
-Christmas Eve is with my dads sister and my moms family.
-Christmas Day is with my dads family.


Plot/Reaction: Theres a small town made of roughly 300 people and its the end of June. The of the citizens are all preparing themselves to go to the town center for some sort of meeting. The meeting consists of a long lived tradition with a black box and slips of paper that are blank or have black dots. Each head of family must pick a slip of paper out of the box and not look at it until all have choosen. Then the family that has the black dot must do the same choosing of slips within the family. The Hutchinson family has to do so and Mrs. Hutchinson ends up getting the slip of paper with a big black dot on it. The pebbles and piles of stones children had been putting together were ready for use. They all tell Tessie Hutchinson she gets to have a short lead, before they begin stoning her to death. Her youngest son, Davy grabs some stones and throws them at his mother.


Questions: -Why are they stoning someone every year? Why does someone have to die?
-Who came up with this horrid idea that someone has to be killed every year?


Quotes: "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones"(9). This wraps the story around in full circle. At the beginning small boys were gathering stones and pebbles in piles, and now this is telling us that they are going to stone this woman to death.
"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her"(9). Tessie Hutchinson is displaying to us what the 'new kids' and why other towns have gotten rid of the lottery, because it is not just.

Quotation Comdiments for By The Waters of Babylon

DAB

Claim: The leader, or founder of the People of the Hills must have known of the reality of who the 'gods' truly were and how they actually died.


Quote: The narrator states that, "It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods--this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name." p1



DOLLOP

Claim: The leader, or founder of the People of the Hills must have known of the reality of who the 'gods' truly were and how they actually died.


Quote: The narrator helps introduce this soceity in the beginning of the story we learn that, "It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods--this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name." p1



LOTSA SAUCE

Claim: The leader, or founder of the People of the Hills must have known of the reality of who the 'gods' truly were and how they actually died.


Quote: The narrator is explaining what many things are now allowed in the society of the People of the Hill. He or she is trying to display to us in examples how life is and has been since the start of their society by making these examples as descriptive as possible. An example that shows the seirousness is when the narrartor states that, "It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods--this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name." p1

By The Waters of Babylon Quotation Sandwich

Claim: The leader, or founder of the People of the Hills must have known of the reality of who the 'gods' truly were and how they actually died.


Quote: "It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods--this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name." p1


Commentary: Someone in their society knows what the Place of the Gods is, and who the gods were. They have to know in order to forbid it to be gone to and to not allow anyone to say the name of the place. Someone has to know what and who they were in order for them to be so caucious of letting others know also.

The Waters of Babylon

Title: The Waters of Babylon
Author: Stephen Vincent Benet
Date: 10/24/08


Prereading: Do you believe we process information too fast? What is your view on technological advancements?


Plot/Reaction: -Out of sight of the village
-Flat rock
-Edge of the Dead Place
-Dead house
-Banks of the great river
-God-road
-Open place at the top of a cliff
-Great river
-The river
-Great spike of rusted metal sticking out into the river
-The Place of the Gods
-Great temple in the mid-city
-On top of a stone
-Dead-house
-Small ante-room that looked over the great city
-Room with dead 'god'


Questions: - What caused the destruction of society?
- Why did the people fall so far behind and believe the past people were 'gods'?

Quote: "That is all of my story, for then I knew he was a man--I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons." p. 8 This signifies the realization of the priest John who was a member of the Hillside people. It shows that he found the great secret of his people; the ones who they believed were gods, and they were the people who lived before them. These people had much technology but had killed each other off. John figured out the mystery all of his people never knew.

There Will Come Soft Rains

Title: "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" (1950)
Author: Ray Bradbury
Date: 10/22/08


Prereading: What will the world look like in the year 2026?


Plot/Reaction:
7:00- Wake up
7:45- Breakfast time
8:10- School/work time
8:30- Breakfast not eaten thrown away
9:15- Robots clean the room
10:00- Sun came out from behind the rain
10:15- Garden sprinklers turned on
12:00- The front door lets a dog inside
2:00- The dog decayed and cleaning mice were released
2:15- The incinderator burned the dog
2:35- Tables and playing cards were set up as well as music being played
4:00- Tables folded back up and went away
4:30- The nursey came to life and animals moved and sang all around the walls
5:00- The bath filled up with water
6:00- Dinner dishes came out, a fire was started in the fire place and a cigar was lit ready to be smoked
7:00- ""
8:00- ""
9:00- The electric blankets turned out in the beds
9:25- A voice reads a poem to a nonexistant Mrs. McClellan
10:00- A tree crashed into the window and knocked over cleaning liquid into the kitchen stove which started the house on fire


Questions:
- How did all the people die?
- Was there an atomic bomb that this house is the only one standing?


Quotes: "Dawn showed faintly in the east. Among the ruins, one wall stood alone. Within the wall, a last voice said, over and over again and again, ever as the sun rose to shine upon the heaped rubble and steam:
"Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is..."." p. 4
This quote signifies what the world could come to if we had another world war. It creates an image in our mind for us to see how horrible the ending of that war would truly be.

Harrison Bergeron Movie Reflection Summary

We can learn from this that we need to treat each other as fairly as we possibly can as often as we can. We also should not strive for equality, we should strive for acceptance and understanding of all. Equality as the way it is displayed in Harrison Bergeron is not what would create happiness for all. Happiness for all would be a place where all realize that they can't be the best at everything and that when one loses they will win at something else, and not get jealous or envious because they lost. No one can always be happy, but you can be content and learn from the time you've been angry and have been betrayed. The best thing to take away from this is that we as a whole society will never attain perfection, or equality, but we as a society and work towards understanding of one another so we can accept one another.

Harrison Bergeron - Quotation Sandwich

Claim: Even though the beginning of the story states that everything and everyone was equal, as always, there is one person who has more power than others.


Quote: "It was then that Diana Moon Gldeampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on." p. 26


Commentary: This statement shows that no one tried to stop the Handicapper General and no one was going to try to stop her. All the rest of the people were equal except for her; she had all the power and everyone was willing to give it up to her. The Handicapper General was unable to give up her power to be equal with everyone else, and this is a perfect example why Communism would never work.