Blog Post #4 Kathryn Boyle

Group 1:

1. The plot, characterization, point of view, and setting are very simple in the short story "The Lottery". The stories plot is composed of only the current lottery. There is brief mentioning of previous lotteries, but there is no in depth anecdote just simply an explanation of how it was conducted in previous years. The story begins with the gathering of the towns people, with a brief explanation of a few of the families, to the killing of the town's sacrifice. There is little characterization in this story. There is no real individual protagonist or antagonist, more is known about some families but that is simply to show this town is made of real people. The omniscient point of view is what gives us the information about what several people are thinking or doing during the lottery event. It also is what allows us to know how the lottery has changed over the years. Finally with the simple setting of being in the town square limits us as the reader to this single event. The simplicity of the story allows for a non-emotional evaluation of the story, because we do not have any attachments to the characters and their personal lives.

Group 2:

7. When viewing the film of "The Lottery" I kept thinking of how similar it was to The Hunger Games.  Both have the plot of a sacrifice for the greater good of the community and both are conducted by chance and result in violence, however there are some large differences. In "The Lottery" the towns people have the attitude that this is just something that must be done and prefer to get it over with as quickly as possible ,but in The Hunger Games the actual sacrifice - or the games - are conducted almost for entertainment and prolonged for some time. In The Hunger Games there is a definite presence of a bourgeoisie (upper class) in the game makers and residents of the capital, and a proletariate (lower class) in all the other districts. We see the unfairness in not only the fact that children from the capital do not have to participate in the games but also in the way that they have a much higher standard of living.