Both of these stories use suspense to build to somewhat bizarre climaxes. Looking at one of the stories, discuss how the ending was foreshadowed by the text, and what sort of lesson the author is hoping for the reader to gain.
Part 1)
I think "The Lottery" is an interesting short story. It is very well written, but the end is really depressing! Was this a real ritual? Because if it was, that's really disturbing! The ending is just really bizarre. It's bad enough that she is picked to be stoned, but then it's terrible that the one's who stoned her are her own townspeople, including her youngest son!!!! Looking back at the story was unsettling, because everything that seemed normal, like children gathering stones, was really twisted into something horrifying.
Part 2)
"The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, begins by painting a picture of sunny day in a small and pleasant village. The people in the village seem very close and friendly towards each other. The children play together while the parents talk and joke. The main excitement in the village is the lottery that will be conducted later in the day. Everything that has to do with this lottery seems to be a happy and fun excitement. However, at this point, the reader is unaware of exactly what kind of lottery it is. The fact that the lottery is described as a "ritual", foreshadows that this is not the typical lottery. Also, the reader begins to question why the specifics of the lottery are so vague. After the lottery begins, the actions of the characters foreshadow that something is amiss. The narrator describes the crowd as, "quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around." There is an excitement about this lottery, but it is a nervous and fearful excitement. The reader gets a further clue to the negative nature of the lottery when the winning family is not excited. The wife, Mrs. Hutchinson, objects, saying, "It wasn't fair!". This foreshadows that winning the lottery is not a good thing, but the reader is still unsure as to why. When the village runs out to get the pile of stones, the reader finally learns the consequence of the lottery. Although there were many clues to the ending, they were subtle, resulting in a shocking and bizarre ending. The author wants a shocked reaction in the reader to show that everything is not always as it seems. People need to look hard at the situation to predict the ending. What appeared to be a fun town event turned out to be the opposite.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Blog #3
Examine the narrator from either "The Yellow Wallpaper" or "A & P." What does the narrator reveal about him or herself indirectly? What sort of transformation, if any, does the narrator experience during the course of the story?
Part 1)
I liked the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, but it didn't have much of a plot. It was just the narrator getting crazier and crazier. I thought the diary format was interesting because it made it seem like the entries were really from a crazy woman. I like the ending because it leads the reader to believe that the woman continues to circle the room forever.
Part 2)
The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" gradually reveals her increasing craziness to the reader. In the beginning, she says that her husband does not believe that she is sick. Her husband, who is a physician, has diagnosed her with "temporary nervous depression". At this point, the reader knows that the narrator is not well, and is trying to get better. However, the reader does not fully know the extent of her illness. The narrator than begins to drop hints that she is in a worse mental state than at first thought. She starts with seemingly innocent comments about her dislike of the wallpaper: "I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper." Over a couple of entries, the narrator starts to obsess over the wallpaper and how much she hates it. The wallpaper consumes her thoughts, and she starts to write entire entries solely about the wallpaper. The reader begins to witness how her craziness is progressing. The narrator than begins to give life to the wallpaper in her imagination. She imagines that the wallpaper is moving, she begins to smell the wallpaper, and she imagines that a woman living behind the wallpaper. The narrator's hysteria grows when she assures herself that the woman in the wallpaper escapes and walks around outside during the day. Just when the reader is sure that the narrator is crazy, she surpasses this state. She locks herself in the room and tears down all of the wallpaper. Then she convinces herself that she is the woman behind the wallpaper. What began as a minor case of depression turned into an extremely serious state of hysteria.
Part 1)
I liked the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, but it didn't have much of a plot. It was just the narrator getting crazier and crazier. I thought the diary format was interesting because it made it seem like the entries were really from a crazy woman. I like the ending because it leads the reader to believe that the woman continues to circle the room forever.
Part 2)
The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" gradually reveals her increasing craziness to the reader. In the beginning, she says that her husband does not believe that she is sick. Her husband, who is a physician, has diagnosed her with "temporary nervous depression". At this point, the reader knows that the narrator is not well, and is trying to get better. However, the reader does not fully know the extent of her illness. The narrator than begins to drop hints that she is in a worse mental state than at first thought. She starts with seemingly innocent comments about her dislike of the wallpaper: "I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper." Over a couple of entries, the narrator starts to obsess over the wallpaper and how much she hates it. The wallpaper consumes her thoughts, and she starts to write entire entries solely about the wallpaper. The reader begins to witness how her craziness is progressing. The narrator than begins to give life to the wallpaper in her imagination. She imagines that the wallpaper is moving, she begins to smell the wallpaper, and she imagines that a woman living behind the wallpaper. The narrator's hysteria grows when she assures herself that the woman in the wallpaper escapes and walks around outside during the day. Just when the reader is sure that the narrator is crazy, she surpasses this state. She locks herself in the room and tears down all of the wallpaper. Then she convinces herself that she is the woman behind the wallpaper. What began as a minor case of depression turned into an extremely serious state of hysteria.
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