The Lottery

Author: Shirley Jackson
What is justice?
When people get what they deserve.
List traditions you have within your family.
• Christmas at Grandmas
• Eating turkey on Thanksgiving
Describe the community/town in this short story.
The town was a very little town and seemed to be “old fashioned”. Everyone in the town was segregated.
What happened to Mrs. Hutchinson? Why?
Mrs. Hutchinson was stoned to death because she won the lottery. There was no reason given to why this happend. Mrs. Hutchinson comes to the ralization that it's not fair, because at last, she was being the one stoned.
Questions:Why did they do the lottery each year?
Who started the tradition?
Why do they think its okay to do that?
Quote:
“The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davey Hutchinson a few pebbles.” - stand up for your family... dont throw rocks at them!

By the waters of Babylon

Author: Stephen Vincent Benet
Do you believe we process information to fast? What is your view on technological advancements?
I don’t think we process information to fast maybe we apply the information to fast and dont realize what we're doing. I think it makes life easier, but because of that, we become lazy and mess stuff up.
Plot: Walked out of sight of the village and waited for a sign from the Gods on a rock, Went east following a white fawn, Through the forest and past the forest people, Walked the god roads and came to the banks of the great river, crossed the river to the Place of the Gods, Went north in the Place of the Gods, went into the great temple in the middle of the city, north toward dead houses, went inside a dead house, entered a dead room, slept in front of the fire, When back to his home in the hills
Questions:What year is this?
where is this?
Who were the gods?
why are these people so un-advanced?
Quote:I said, “Father, they were men! I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law- but still I know they were men.”

There will come soft rains

Author: Ray Bradbury
What will the world look like in the Year 2026? I think everything will look almost exactly the same as now, but with more modern buildings and maybe cooler computers.
Plot:
Time of Day and What is happening in the story?
7:00 am Time to get up
7:09 Breakfast time
8:01 Time to go to school and work
9:15 Time to clean
10:00 The sun came out and the house was alone in a city of ash
10:15 Garden sprinklers went off showing the silhouettes in paint of people on the sides of the burnt house
12:00 pm Mangled dog walked into the house and died
2:00 Mice picked up decay
2:15 Dog was gone
2:35 Bridge tables unfolded and drinks were made
4:30 Nursery walls glowed with pictures and sounds
5:00 Bath was filled with hot water
6:00 – 8:00 Dinner was made and cleaned up
9:00 Beds were warmed
9:05 Poem was randomly selected and read
Questions
where are all the people?
why was the city "glowing"?
is the story based off the poem?

Harrison Bergeron

By: Kurt Vonnegut

 

What is Equality?

Equality is no separation between anything. Everyone is equal and no one is better than the other.

Who is Harrison Bergeron?

Harrison Bergeron is a guy in the story who had many handicaps because he was really smart and really strong. he was taken away because the government thought he was plotting to overthrow them.

How dose Harrison challenge the governments handicap program?

He went to a television station, took off his handicaps, and claimed himself as emperor. He told everyone to take their handicaps off, which upset the government.

Questions:

What made this “equality” happen?

Why was their version of equality making everyone stupid & weak?

Quotes:

Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket

author: Jack Finney
date: October 8th, 2010

Pre-reading: top 5 priorities:
family, homework, religion, friends, cleaning.

Plot/reaction: Tom's wife was going out for the night to a movie. He stays in so he can finish some paperwork. An important paper of his flies out the window. He decides that the paper is too important to let go of and climbs out on the ledge to retrieve it. While he's put there, the window shuts on him. He tries numerous times to get help by starting paper on fire and letting it drop and screaming for help. He almost fell of the ledge a few times. He finally punches through the window, climbs in, and goes out to find his wife.

Questions:

• What is Tom typing? 
• Why didn't Tom go with his wife?  
• Why was the yellow paper so important?
• Why didn't Tom prop the window open with something?

Quotes:

• " 

"There Will Come Soft Rains" quotation sandwich

Claim: The convenience of technology can be helpful to humans.

Quote: "In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly brown toast, eight eggs sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two glasses of milk."

Commentary: The kitchen cooking a meal itself is one out of the many examples showing the convenience of technology. By the kitchen cooking by itself, it would give humans more time to prepare themselves for the day.

Quotation Sandwich

Claim: The society Harrison Bergeron lives in is not at all equal.

Quote: "It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun."

Commentary: The society isn't as equal as the people think it to be. We see in the story that there are people who have more power than others, such as Diana Moon Glampers. Diana comes in with a shotgun and shoots two people, and there are other people in the story with no rights to be individual or have any form of power or pride like George, who is forced to wear birdshot to restrain his strengths and a radio in his ear to keep him from thinking and being more intelligent than others.

Imagery

"Then, from the short hallway at his back, he heard the muffled clang of wire coat hangers in the bedroom closet."

"But as usual the window didnt budge, and he had to lower his hands and then shoot them hard upward to jolt the window open a few inches"

exposition:
it took place in the 1970's in New York.
Tom's wife leaves the house to to go to a movie and he stays home to work on a paper.

rising action:
an important paper on his desk flew out the window
he goes onto the ledge to retrieve his paper.

climax:
the window shuts on him
he's stuck outside

falling action:
He punches the window and it falls out again

resolution:
he leaves his works behind to go out with his wife.