Monday, January 30, 2012

Class Notes on January 30th - “The Lottery” by Jackson and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Le Guin

ENGL1102 Notes

1/30/2012

“The Lottery” by Jackson and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Le Guin

Presentation on Religious Symbolism in “The Lottery”

· Poem Background

o Published in The New Yorker in 1948

o Not received well

o Banned in South Africa

o Jackson’s mother was against it

o Grew on people over Time

· Shirley Jackson

o Born in San Francisco in 1916

o Graduated from Syracuse in 1940

o Wrote “The Witchcraft of Salem Village” in 1956

· In 1948:

o End of World War II

o Gender Roles being re-established

o Strong Conformity - Patriotism

o Xenophobia

o Religion played a large role in everyday life

· Origins of the ‘Lottery’

o No knowledge of actual origin

o Passed down from generation to generation

o Loss of meaning

o Widespread tradition

o Harvest sacrifice – “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”

· Conduct of the ‘Lottery’

o Annual town-wide event

o Everyone participates

o Mr. Summers – set a tone that didn’t seem right for the event

o The Black Box – could be treated like a relic

§ Evolution from wood chips to paper shows the ritual has evolved

· Evolution of the ‘Lottery’

o Some people are giving up the tradition

o Tradition vs Progress

o Loss of the Lottery could be a parallel to the loss of religion after WWII

· The Villagers

o Everyone takes part

o Delacroix Family

§ Means of the cross

o Mr. Adams and Mr. Graves

§ Adam being the start of humanity and Grave being the end of humanity

o Gender Roles Followed

· The Impact

o Mob Psychology

o Conformity out of fear

o Patriarchal Society

o General Acceptance

· The Significance

o Used to mark time

o The Harvest

o Community

o Structured Families

· Christianity

o Religious Relics – the black box

§ Used part of the old box to make the new one

o Catholic Rituals

§ Followed a script, used to have chants

o Human Sacrifice

§ Christ dying to save the others

o John 8

o Old Man Warner

§ 77 is considered the number of perfection, his age

· Judaism

o Jewish Community

o Animal Sacrifice

§ Used to cleanse themselves of sin

o Stoning/Communal Punishment

§ Whole society must condemn one person for the greater good

o Diffusion of guilt

§ Everyone participates, there is no one person to blame

o Tradition passed through family

§ Traditions are kept and passed from parent to child

· Paganism

o Native American Harvest Ceremonies

o Aztec god ‘Tlaloc’

§ God of fertility and harvest, required a sacrifice

o Stones as ancient weapons

o Oral Tradition

o Tribalism

· The Victim

o Tessie Hutchinson

§ Allusion to Anne Hutchinson

o Last to arrive, an outsider

o Abandoned by her own family

o Not a heroine/martyr

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