Happened Vs Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s shorty story “The Lottery”, is about a brutal tradition that is followed by a multiple villages. In this particular village, the tradition is much faster when comparing to other villages because it only has a population of three hundred people. The “lottery” starts off when the head of each house hold take a slip of paper from a black box then whichever family ends up getting the slip of paper with the black dot wins. Then the family has to get another drawing for each family member; and in which the wife wins. Because she won, the town sacrifices her by throwing stones at her until she dies.

"Early all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" said Abraham Lincoln. Montana 1948 is a novel written by Larry Watson and narrated by David, a 12 year old boy. In the summer of 1948 many lives were changed and destroyed in the small town of Bentrock Montana because of the crime David's uncle Frank committed. Throughout this novel we learn an important lesson that if one doesn’t know how to handle power it can lead to devastating consequences.

For example, the text says, “so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded” and, “some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery.” It also claims that “There had been, also, a ritual salute.” So they just host the lottery off ancient beliefs of their ancestors.

Have you ever been in a situation where you witnessed someone being hurt? Did you do anything to stop them? Most times, we are afraid to help someone else in order to not risk our own lives. Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” uses Tessie as a symbol to explore the idea that fear can lead to the collapse and corruption of a community. In "The Lottery" we are introduced to an unusual lottery in where one person gets unfortunately chosen and stoned to death.

Many people would die to win the lottery; in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson you would do anything NOT to win this lottery. This annual lottery reveals the negative aspects of this town’s Tradition, Savagery, Barbarism, and cold-heartedness. In this paper I will show why this town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because of the accepting wickedness that can be shown. Why does the town follow this foolish tradition? Throughout “The Lottery” the narrator tells that the people do not remember how the lottery began, and that some of the older people believe the lottery has changed over the years, that now people just want to get it over with as fast as possible.

Power in today’s can be used in many different forms such as to show strength, rank, encouraging others, being an influence, being a leader, and much more. The way you use power in a situation can have a positive or negative impact on an individual, community, country, nation, or even the world. In the short story “Miss Temptation” by Kurt Vonnegut, he describe how power can impact an individual way of thinking of others due to past experiences. Power can anything one allows to have a dominance over their lives. It is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

But first what is Power? When researching Power words such as authority, control, direct, command and influence all appear. These words all support the following statement “Power is the ability to influence and control the behaviour of others.” The problem with power is that it often leads to those in power abusing it. As Lord Acton famously quoted “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a story about the tradition of a small village, is painted in impeccable details of peace, and serenity on a warm summer day, as everyone follows the tradition they have known since a long time ago despite the true intentions and meaning of it forgotten. The Lottery taking place annually is like no other lottery, it paints the true picture of the horror that epitomizes the tradition that none of the villagers dare to question, despite it creating separation between gender and families and ruining

The two story’s “The Lottery” And “First They Came”, have similar themes or messages. The lottery is about a small town in a fiction world that needs to keep up a tradition by having a lottery. But in this case winning the lottery is not a good thing. The poem First they came is about a man where everyone around him is being taken by the Nazis because they are either Jewish, Socialists, and the Unionists.

Power, a major influence throughout all of history. Wars, love, and countries all began with the same concept: power. Sometimes, power is used responsibly; other time the platform of prestige authority is used in a manipulative way. Power can stem from an individual, but it can also be rooted in memories that haunt people forever. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini writes an impactful novel, showing the brutality Afghanistan goes through as power is corrupted in the country.

Power can quickly change a person. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Cask of the Amontillado” the narrator has power over an intoxicated Fortunato as he leads him down it to the depths of his family vaults. The narrator has power over Fortunato and it ends up changing the narrator to be a different man from whom Fortunato knows. Power has also has changed characters for the worse in the Percy Jackson books written by Rick Riordan included but not limited to Kronos, Luke, and Ethan. They prove that people can be obsessed with the control, respect, and chance for revenge that power gives them.

Throughout centuries, traditions and rituals have had the ability to control one’s behavior. In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, she tells the reader of a small village. On the surface, this community may seem relatively normal. However, despite the picturesque appeal, this falsely serene village has a distinct deceitful flaw. On June 27th, every year, a lottery takes place.

Different forms of power have always and will always be present in our world. Most people hold at least one form of power; although, three forms are seen more often than others. Throughout history people have gained power though race, gender, and social class. These groups of power are discussed throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The author shows how the different forms of power affect the way people are perceived and treated.

Power is the ability to actor do something in a particular way. People who have too much power and abuse it, and turn their power into a negative power. Fear and tyranny are abused by people with power creating a negative effect on society. Leaders with a huge rule of power will abuse their role as a leader by creating a fearful environment.

There is such a variety of definitions regarding discourse that make it difficult to stick to one definition, therefore the context to which discourse is used is helpful to narrowing down a less diverse definition. Michel Foucault (philosopher, social theorist and literary critic) used various definitions of discourse at separate instances. The rough definition that Foucault suggests for Discourse is ‘the general domain of all statements’. He also defines discourse as an adapted cluster of statements, which could relate to the distinct structures in discourse. Discourse has to do with distinguishing groups of statements which are controlled in a way that they match and reach a mutual effect.