Question: Who do you think has power in “The Lottery”? WHY does this person(s) have power, and how is it articulated?
As I read the story of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", I came to conclude that men are powerful in the story like Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Martin. Although Mr. Graves and Mr. Martin had economic control, the lottery actually made them involved to have political control in the town. Other men in the town, although not directly in charge of the lottery, had more power than women. Men in the story seems like have the power of corruptive forces of capitalism to continue the town’s annual lottery, carrying out the selection of an unassertive individual.
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I agree that men are seen in this story as more powerful than women.I think that Jackson is showing how society in the past and the present see women as lower in status than men. A problem that has been going on for many years and still continues today.
ReplyDeleteWeek 5, question 11
ReplyDelete“Legal Alien” fits the literary text perfectly because the words in the title are a great representation of what the author is communicating in her poem. Her emotions are clearly depicted when she says she feels like she is "An American to Mexicans [and] a Mexican to Americans"(976) Like many who are bi-racial, she feels like she’s floating between cultures and consequently fails to be a part of any particular group. Her perception of herself is that of an alien because she isn’t fully accepted by either racial group due to her bi-racial background. The author is able to fluently communicate in both English and Spanish and is therefore considered an outcast as a result of it. The “Anglos” view her as perhaps inferior or different and the Mexicans perceive her an alien which highlight the author’s sentiments. “Legal Alien” represents how the author is permitted by law to be in the United States yet feels like she’s estranged and excluded.