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I have chosen to examine the theme of attempted but failed equality in my final paper.
The theme of equality is present throughout many of the dystopian short stories, novels, poems and films we have studied in class. The three stories I feel this theme is most present in are “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin. In these stories society tries to make everything orderly and just. Their methods to promote equality are flawed. The goal in these stories is to perfect society but in each story they fall short. Reading these stories I am only reminded of the need for equality in the world. Equality is an issue that has been impacting our nation and society for a very long time. I find this very interesting and it is very close to my heart. My parents are German and faced many struggles and even discrimination when they moved to America in the early 90’s. I am a Christian and believe all people were created equal. We were all given gifts and the equal chance to be who we want but many factors have proven difficult for many. Society should never discriminate against others on account of race, sex, sexual preferences or geographical origin. This is why I chose this particular topic.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story based on a small New England town or village of 300 people. Each year the townspeople gather to draw slips of paper to decide their fate. If they
The story started when people are gathered every end of June for the annual lottery ritual in a small village. All the head of each family are required to grab a slip a slip of paper in the box that is placed in the middle of the village. The in charge of the lottery was Mr. Summer. The conflict occurs when Tessie found out that her husband Bill was the center of the Villager’s attention. There is something on the paper that he picked. Because of that Tessie can’t even accept it and she keep on yelling that it is not fair. She believed that the time given to Bill was not enough to pick the paper that he wanted from Mr. Summer. The entire Hutchinson family, are
Equality has been a hot topic in the past century. Women and African-Americans have not had equality for that long. Women gained quality in the 1920s and African-Americans gained equality in the 1960s. It took them a lot of time to get those rights and dream in Of Mice and Men, show equality must be worked for. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes the characters of Crooks and Curley’s wife to illustrate that equality takes a long time to come by.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.
Equality is something we humans crave for when we are in a time of hardship. When we are being discriminated against, we feel the utmost pain and the need for freedom. Discrimination has lingered since the beginning of time, and ending it is impracticable. A French novelist, Honore de Balzac proclaims, “Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.” Here, Balzac is acknowledging that an individual is born a free man and is just as equal as any other man. But, an individual will never be fully equal as they desire. Some parts of society will try to act superior to a certain quality of someone’s life, like their race, religion, culture, etc. This statement proves to be valid in Khaled Hosseini’s novel,
In today’s world, equality is quite a hot topic being thrown about. With the help of Kurt Vonnegut and Chandler Tuttle with kind of have an idea of what really equality could look like. The question I think they are trying to pose is do we really want equality? Both stories are quite similar but have a few differences which affects the way the perceive different stories. The story is mainly about a time in the future where all people would be equal to both God and Law. Some people like Harrison, will dislike being made equal to others because they believe, they are being denied a chance to achieve their full potential.
Shirley Jackson is to be considered one of the best authors of the 1900’s. Her style of writing reeled in readers from all different ages. She can be creepy, hilarious, and inspiring to the eyes that see her words. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, she keeps the reader on the edge of their seat wanting to continue reading beyond the final word. She uses literary devices to shape her story to grab her readers attention all throughout the story. By using these literary devices, Shirley Jackson shows off her dark and twisted side as well as her fantastic writing style to emphasize why she is one of the writers of her generation.
Achieving equality has been attempted by many, however, none have completely succeeded. The problems lies in the individualism each person poses. By wiping out the individualism in a society, while not completely achieving equality, equality would be as close to perfect as it could get. In the novel Anthem, Equality 7-2521 and his fellow brothers live in a society in which perfect equality is being attempted to be achieved; individualism has been weeded out over time. During Ayn Rand’s novel about dystopian society, the Council of Vocations assign Equality the job of street cleaner due to a sinister motivation of believing Equality and his intelligence pose a threat to their “perfect” society.
As Will Rogers once said, “We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.” In the novel Anthem, by Ayn Rand, the main character, Equality, is presented to the reader as smart, tall, and one who thinks for himself. On first glance none of these things would seem bad, but in the society of Anthem, all three of those things are considered wrong. The irony in this is how Equality in the novel does not fit the society’s view on equality. With a world very different than that society, it is very important to see what equality means today and God’s view on being equal.
“What is equality?” one might ask. We all have different views on specific topics and can describe what something truly means to one’s self like in the 3 text, “I have a dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (published; 8/28/1963, genre; narrative and argumentative), “If we must die,” by Claude Mckay (published; 1919, genre; narrative and lyric), & “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (published; October 1961, genre; satirical & dystopian science-fiction short story). In all 3 texts the authors are giving their touch on equality. Equality can convey being treated the same when a colored and a white man/woman are next to each other as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says. You can also see equality as Mckay who thinks it’s being on the same level of strength and worth as a white man being in the shoes of a colored man. Or equality can be being exactly the same in every way as anyone around you in every exact way in Vonnegut’s eyes. All these 3 authors have a particular view on how to answer “What is equality?” and we can compare their ideas.
Equality defines the state of being equal opening up many opportunities and rights to everybody no matter who they are. It can build a strong society if applied correctly. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Al Roosten” by George Saunders are two short stories regarding the effects of varying levels of social equality, creating a negative response. Both of these stories demonstrate the effects of equality and the power it has to shape society and people. Harrison from “Harrison Bergeron” is found in a society with highly advanced equality whereas Al from “Al Roosten” is struggling in a society dealing with the opposite however, both characters and societies are struggling with the negative effects. The negative effects that come with
“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” – Alice Paul (Alice Paul Quote)
“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” – Alice Paul (Alice Paul Quote)
Our setting emanates a positive atmosphere, the children in the square are collecting stones, and the adults trading small-talk. However, the village holds a “lottery.” Far from the common interpretation of the word. Do our characters, Mr. Warner and Mr. Graves, exhibit change? Showing two sides of humanity rarely seen side by side? While providing a dark view into a fictional world, with their behavior also correlating with the general theme of the story? Yes, they do. They represent the foundation of giving a clear indication of how something as simple as tradition, can change one’s behavior for the worst.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story written in 1948. Due to World War II ending around this time, her story took some strong criticism. The people at that time wanted uplifting stories, and this story is the very opposite because of its underlying theme of tradition and conformity. “The Lottery” shows that no matter the tradition or belief, people will not stray from their daily routine because humans are creatures of habit, and are scared to wonder from what we know. Jackson writes by providing the reader with little details at first.Then making the reader put the information all together to come to the conclusion that people will never change. Jackson then creates symbols of tradition and conformity by adding details, using specific objects, and”The Lottery” itself.
1: The view of equality is important because we need to remember we are all humans no matter what little variation we contain within us, judging somebody for something as small as liking the same