http://www.americanliterature.com/SS/SS16.HTML
I'll go easy on you for this first reading log entry. Here are a list of questions. Pick two that you can answer well and post them to the website. If you see someone's answer that you disagree with or that you think could use some more support, you can also reply to someone elses post--as long as you answer two questions and demonstrate an understanding of the story, I'll be happy. I know the length question is coming soon. I don't want an entire essay. I do want a good, well-developed paragraph with good, specific examples from the text. Plan to have this done by Monday, October 1, 2007
Here are your questions:
1. Where do you think "The lottery takes place? What purpose do you suppose the writer has in making the setting appear so familiar and ordinary?
2. Take a close look at Jackson's description of the black wooden box and of the black spot on the fatal slip of paper. What do these objects suggest to you? Are there any other symbols in the story?
3. Do you expect the end of the story? What details foreshadow the end?
4. What do you understand to be the writer's own attitude toward the lottery and the stoning? Exactly what in the story makes her attitude clear?
5. What do you make of Old Man Warner's saying, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon"?
6. What do you think Jacks is driving at? Consider each of the following interpretations and, looking at the story, seel fi you can find any evidence for it:
- Jackson takes a primitive fertility rite and playfully transfers it to a small town in North America
- Jackson, writing her story soon after WWII, indirectly expresses her horror at the Holocaust. She assumes that the massacre of the Jews was carried out by unwitting, obedient people like the villagers.
- Jackson is satirizing our own society in which men are selected for the army by lottery.
- Jackson is just writing a memorable stoy that signifies nothing at all.
7. React to the story--did you love it or hate it? Why?
Happy reading and writing--
Mrs. M
