Week Five - The Lottery

What does one think of when they hear the word "Lottery"? They think of money, or the winning of it, of course!
So what would one expect to read about in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson? The winning of money, or the consequences there of, and that's what I expected when I started reading. Unfortunately I'd been warned prior to reading this that this story was "Messed up", and that I also had small expectations that it would be a chainsaw massacre, more or less by the end of the story. Sadly I wasn't to far off, but I am getting ahead of myself now. 

The story starts off happy enough, children finishing with school for the year, men and women gathering and talking. Then the black box is brought into the story, the embodiment of the lottery. Everyone is marry, they laugh, they jest, all is well. But then things take a queer turn. The Huchinson family is chosen, which is a bit odd in lottery terms, and they seem upset about it, Tessie even says it's unfair. It starts to make one wonder what everyone is trying to win.

Tickets are re-distributed to the family, and people start saying they hope  it's not little Nancy. The family is on edge. The tickets are opened, and it appears that Mrs. Hutchinson won! She is then stoned to death by the people of the village, revealing the sickness that was hiding behind the curtain the whole time, that the village partakes in a ritual once a month of killing a random person. I agree with my friends, this story is "messed up".

Week four Scarlet Letter

And she was gentler here then in the grassy-margined streets or the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The flowers appeared to know it; and one and another whispered, as she passed, "Adorn thyself with me, thou beautiful child, adorn yourself with me!"- and to please then, Pearl gathered the violets, and anemones, and columbines, and other twigs of the freshest green, which the old trees held down before her eyes. With these she decorated her hair,and her young waist, and became a nymph child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood.

The first thing it tells you is that Pearl, the young girl talked about in this passage, is much more gentle in the forest then in the settlement or her mother's cottage. Throughout the latter part of the book, Pearl is always called the "Wild Child", impish, and is otherwise uncontrollable and impulsive in everything she does. But here, in the forest, she is calm and gentle, quiet like one of the animals that live there. The flowers speak out to her (whether literally or figuratively she hears them it doesn't say), and she wears what she finds, becoming one with the forest around her. Everything in this passage shows the readers how young Pearl, the Wild Child, more relates to the beasts and trees then the people of the settlement.

Week three The Scarlet Letter

I-the man of thought-the bookworm of great libraries-a man already in decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,-what had i to do with youth and beauty like thine own! Misshapen from my birth-hour, how could i delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl's fantasy!

In my opinion, this is the most important paragraph up to this point, as it both describes the "physician" (who we find out is her ex, as well as their past. The wording is a bit fancy, but it translates quite simply to this:

"I, an intelligent man, and a heavy reader in many great libraries, a man past his prime, having spent my childhood and teenage years in the pursuit of knowledge, what would I have to do with a young beauty like you? Deformed since birth, how could I pretend that my intelligence would mask my deformations in a young girl's eyes?"  -mind you, this is a rough translation-.

How to Read American Literature Like a Professor

Fog for instance. It almost always signals some sort of confusion. Dickens used a miasma, a literal and figurative fog, for the Court of Chancery, the English version of American probate court where estates are sorted out and wills contested, in Bleak House (1853). Henry Green uses heavy fog to gridlock London and strand his wealthy young travelers in a hotel in Party Going (1939). In each case the fog is mental and ethical as well as physical. In almost any case I can think of, authors use fog to suggest that people can't see clearly, that matter under consideration are murky.


More or less I agree with Foster in this matter. Since when has fog not been a symbol of confusion, or disorientation? May I also add to his point, that fog also can stand for the fear of the unknown. When a protagonist and his band walks into a thick fog, the first question you likely think is "What's hiding in there?". They will likely get lost, wander in circles, get separated, maybe even picked off when they are out of voice range? It's all confusion, the unknown or unseen. So yes I agree with Foster in this passage.

Week one,Young Goodman Brown

"Lo! There ye stand, my children," said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad,with it's despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream! Now are we undeceived!-Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!"

I chose this paragraph because it's description of the "Dark figure" was very revealing, and also explaining the reason of the events prior of this point in the short story. It notes that this man who is speaking has a once angelic nature, coupled with how he calls the gathered crowd "his children",  it is clearly stating he is a fallen angel, and more importantly, that he is Lucifer. Speaking to the gathered in a way that reminds me somewhat of Hitler, Lucifer is convincing them that they are, or should be, living in a sinful and evil lifestyle, because it is the only way they are meant to live.