Response: The Lottery

Summary:

The story takes place in present day in a small town. All the people gathered around for an annual ritual known as "the lottery" this event is done every year on the 27^th June. In this village there are more then 300 residents. Children collected stones, while the adult townsfolk assembled for the annual event. In the lottery, the man of each family draws a small slip of paper; Mr. Hutchinson got the slip with a black spot, which meant that his family was chosen for the lottery and later Mr. Hutchinson’s family had to draw a slip from the black box. His wife Tessie who had arrived late got the marked slip. Although this tradition had been abandoned in other neighborhoods, the folks in the village didn’t felt the need of changing this hysteric event. Tessie was stoned to death by the children and all the people who were present at the event.

Questions:
1.What does the black box symbolizes?
2. In the past were there any cultural or historical events like this?

3. Why didn't Mr. Hutchinson save his wife? why didn't he chose to be stoned rather than his wife.

4. What does this lottery mean, if it leads to death? What does the villagers benefit by stoning Tessie to death? 

5. Were the people afraid of changing the rule of the (tradition) lottery?

Interpretation:

"The Lottery" is a story that involves hysteria and hypocrisy which shows the weakness of man kind. "Some places have already quit lotteries". Mr. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that", old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools." The younger people in the village felt that the event should be abandoned just like the other villages, but the old folks didn’t want changes to be made. This shows that the folks are afraid of changes in their life and want everything to stay the same, because they felt that something bad might happen if they change the ritual.

Compostiton # 3

Conflicts can explain many things in life such as disagreement; between individuals, groups, or organizations. Most conflicts are done to reach an agreement. It can change the relationships between two people or groups in a negative or a positive way. Conflicts might help individuals or groups understand their mistakes. Conflicts can also benefit witnesses, because they can learn from the mistakes of others.

One of the conflict that I remember was a few years ago. The conflict was between my friend and her mother. I was there when she and her mother were arguing about my friend’s report card. It said that she had missed school, and was failing some of her classes. So as a result of that, her mother refused to let her go on her summer vacation to her country. They argued back and forth about this issue, but her mother’s decision was clear about her not going. My friend as upset and angry, but I was not able to make her feel better.

           

            This conflict was resolved between them because my friend realized it was her fault for failing and that she should have tried hard, rather than cutting school with her friends. My friend apologized to her mother and told her she would do better next time. I was happy that the conflict between them was over.

            My opinion about this conflict is that her mother was right, about not letting her go for a vacation, because now my friend learned her lesson and would try to do better in school. As a witness, I felt that this conflict between them was necessary because it changed my friend’s attitude towards school in a positive way. In fact this conflict made me more aware of school and other things, so in the future I wouldn’t have to face this type of conflicts.  

A Chip of Glass Ruby: Summary

 “A Chip of Glass Ruby” is about an Indian-African Muslim woman named Zanip Bamjee. She lived with her children and her husband in a poor neighborhood, with all the other Indian and black families. Mrs. Bamjee was a political activist who wanted to help everyone in need. One way she helped her community was by making leaflets and protesting against the government. “What’s the difference, Yusuf? We’ve all got the same troubles.” The black community was being taken away form their homes and Mrs. Bamjee wanted to help them because she felt that it might happen to them later on. She would stay up late most of the time to finish making copies of the leaflets. Her eldest son Jimmy also felt the same way about the government and wants to help his community. But Mr. Bamjee, who saw things differently, felt that his wife and Jimmy might get themselves into trouble. He was a food and vegetable vender, trying to make a better living and make things right for his family. But with his son and his wife’s political activity he felt things might not be the same. Girlie, in the other hand felt that her mother is doing the right thing. Mrs. Bamjee was taken away form her house and was put into jail with the other activists. Mr. Bamjee never figured out why he had married his wife. Girlie said to him “It’s because she doesn’t want anybody to be left out”, and at the end Mr. Bamjee realized that “Nobody else is like that”, the way Mrs. Bamjee was. My favorite part is when Mr. Bamjee bought his wife flowers and the best fruits, because he realized at the end that she was different. She cared for her family and wanted everyone to live a better life.

       

      The point of this story is to show us the reader that sometimes people can have a situation where they have to decide from two good things. But we can’t always do two good things at the same time. So sometimes we have to sacrifice one good thing for another. This relates to Mrs. Bamjee because she had two good things to do at the sometime. One was to stay home and take care of her family and the other was to help the black community. Both of them are good things that she wanted to maintain, but at the end she felt that helping her community was the first step in order to help her family, because it can also happen to them later on. She wanted the best for her children and others like them; because she felt that everyone should get an equal opportunity as the whites or upper class.

Question:
1. Was Mrs. Bamjee able to solve the conflict with the government?

    

Foreman changed his mind form “guilty” to “not guilty”

            The foreman changed his mind form “guilty” to “not guilty” because of the 8^th Juror’s reasonable questioning about why the boy might be innocent. The foreman remained quite most of the time and only spoke when the jurors were arguing, and was trying to make them stop. But he did ask few questions about what the judge, investigator, and detectives said about the boy. “What I was gonna say was, the psychiatrist definitely stated that the boy had strong homicidal tendencies. I mean, that he was what d’ya call it- capable of committing murder. He descried those entire tests, inkblots and all that stuff, and he said the kid is definitely a killer type. Am I right?(Rose 58).” The foreman first seemed to think the boy was guilty but after listening to everyone he felt he should change his vote to not guilty.

Twelve Angry Men By: Reginald Rose. (Juror # 1)

       Twelve Angry Men takes place in the New York City court. A 16 year old boy who is the defendant might be hanged for first-degree murder. This is a mandatory death penalty because he murdered his father. The first juror also called foreman was determined and concerned about the decision of the other jurors if the boy is guilty or not guilty. On page 19, Foreman: “What, just because I’m trying to keep this thing organized? Listen. You want to do it? Here. You sit here. You take the responsibility. I’ll just shut up, that’s all.” The foreman wanted to do his duty as a foreman by obtaining his authority. He wants to get the jurors to corporate to make a final decision. He doesn’t like when the jurors objects to his way of managing them. The foreman also tries to make things easy for the jurors by not making any difficult rules, but rules that they will agree with. “All right. Now you gentlemen can handle this any way you want to. I mean, I’m not going to have any rules. If we want to discuss first and then vote, that’s one way. Or we can vote right now to see how we stand… (Rose 10).” “All right, let’s stop all this arguing. We’re wasting time here. (Rose 18).” The foreman doesn’t want the jurors to argue and waste time but to stay on task.