Reading for April 12th: "The Lottery" (587), by Shirley Jackson.
"A Hunger Artist", by Frank Kafka.
Also, read "Everyday Use" (1306)along with the above two short stories for our class discussion on Wednesday, the 14th.
1. What are your thoughts on the short story "The Lottery"?
2. Discuss any ideas that came to you when reading "A Hunger Artist".
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"The Lottery" to me was a little confusing, until today in class I did not know they killed the person, I simply thought the person who drew the paper with the pencil got was stoned. After finding this out I thought this story was cruel. I think it is completely absurd for the town to cheerfully get together, gather stones, and take part in murdering someone for the sake of their "crops". As for the "Hunger Artist" I think he is enslaved literally by his eating disorder. He is put in a cage to be watched as someone with an issue, and asking for acceptance. I think it is horrible that people found it interesting to watch a man starve himself, and wither away into nothing. The Hunger Artist was not there to entertain, he was there to have an excuse not to eat.
ReplyDeletei thought the lottery was to be honest ridicuouse and insane. however i also thought it was a good example of what humans are willing and capable of doing in relations to tradition or superstition. in order ot maintain the town these peopel ston e and kill not just innocent citims but there nieghbors and even friends and family.human kind has been willign to do the unimagainable inr eligions, cults, communities and this is a perfect example if how some times a belive can go to far. As for the hunger artist it was very odd butI thought it portrayed a clear message of doing what make su happy even if it is not what others were use to. if fasting gave that man some sort of pride then god for him. although i did believe he seemed a bit to much into the sopt light to thing it was purley spiritual like some would suggest
ReplyDelete1. When I read the title of the short, I though Lottery it must be a good thing. I was wrong “The Lottery” is a very cruel and violent story. I don’t see how this can be an annual tradition in any town. How could the townspeople stone one of their own, I couldn’t seem to understand that. I thought it might be an annual sacrifice, but I’m not sure.
ReplyDelete2. I felt that the man in the “Hunger Artist” was never satisfied with himself. I saw him as a successful artist, but he still wanted more he wanted everyone to know that he could be the best faster and it ultimately led to his death. I didn’t really believe his reason for not eating either he say because he couldn’t find any food that he liked, but I believe the man in a way wanted to die because he would never be satisfied with himself.
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ReplyDeleteVery interesting comments! Keep thinking.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is cruel to stone someone to death, but what does the author intend to portray here? What does this short story reveal about traditions, rituals and the mindset of people? Why are the people, though uneasy, not revolting against this practice? These are some questions to think about.
Why is the hunger artist craving for? This short story taps into a whole array of psychological issues as well. What would you find more interesting to watch, an emaciated man or a robust panther full of life? That they are both caged in another matter altogether, but think about what gets the crowds' attention? Why? What does that say about human nature?
Please continue with your posts.
1. "The Lottery" starts out with a depiction of a warm sunny summer day, where the flowers are blossoming and children are playing in the rich green grass. "Surely this story would be a happy one", I thought to myself. The subtle foreshadowing, like the black box, and the hesitation of the participants did strike me as odd, but didn't give away the sinister plot that was about to unfold. One reading the story for the first time would never think they were about to do something so horrible as to kill someone, let alone with stones, in public, and for no good reason. The etiquette and politeness of the people further assures that no one would guess what was about to happen. Then finally, when the papers are finally opened and the "winner" of the lottery is revealed, his wife bursts into shouting that it was unfair. Suddenly the story becomes tragic.
ReplyDeleteThe obvious question the reader is left with after the story is : How could a society of perfectly ordinary people let something like this happen? The only explanation is that the people of this town have become so used to doing this, they have become desensitized to murder. We don't know why or how this tradition started in the first place, but whatever the reason, it has surely been lost sight of. Also, we must remember that human sacrifice is not something that hasn't been done in the real world. There have been plenty of civilizations throughout history that for one reason or another decided that a human sacrifice was necessary. This story shows what would happen if one of those societies had continued the tradition into the present day. The story serves to make us think about some traditions that we have and reevaluate their purpose. it teaches us to not blindly carry out our everyday lives, but to think about what we are actually doing.
2. Whenever we hear that someone is fasting, we immediately think to ourselves, "Why?". Usually it is to boycott for some greater good, like Gandhi in his attempt to stop violence. However, in this story the motive for this individuals fasting is not made entirely clear.
The explicit reason for his fasting is for the profit of his manager -for it is stated in the text that there is a manager that only allows him to fast for 40 days because that is the statistically proven span of time that is most efficient for attracting public attention. However he is clearly against any sort of profit for his fasting. It is stated that he is against the selling of pictures of him on the fortieth day because it would seem as if that was the purpose for the whole event when in fact it is the thing he hates the most.
At first it seems obvious that he is addicted to the attention. He loves when the guards watch him so they know hes not sneaking food. Then we get a glimpse of his perplexing psychological outlook. It is stated that he is not only emaciated by his fasting, but also because the people do not know how easy it is for him to fast, which in turn makes him unfulfilled. It is almost a paradox- the one thing that he gets attention for is making him even more depressed because it is not as amazing as the people think. Apparently he is in fact trying to achieve something. His goal is to be the best faster in the world. He wanted to impress people by doing something amazing, but ironically he was never fulfilled because his achievement wasn't even amazing to himself!
Excellent analysis, Michael! Fine insight into both the stories.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
I appreciate all your comments on the blog.
It is absurd to think of how ignorant the community members are in The Lottery. Mr. Warner, the older man thinks that just because things are done a certain way in the past, they are morally correct. But I am positive that having a lottery for a person being stoned to death highly incorrect. At the begginning of the story I thought that it was going to be quite a pleasant one. The author most obviously tries to send a point and throws you off in the begginning story by depicting it as a nice summer day with children playing.
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Artist was very odd to me. It is as if the artist wants attention and the way that he does it is by starving himself. At one point he almost shows off to the crowd of people and lets them feel how skinny he is.
In my opinion, I did not fully understand the Lottery at the end. I did not understand the whole ending of the story when the woman got stoned to death, but after Dr. Pruss, and the discussion in class, I got a better understanding of the story. Now that I know what happened at the end I feel the story really shows how people back then, and nowadays still do things in their traditions without knowing the true meaning. For example, I know a few people who did NOT know WHY they celebrate Easter, they just did it for the free candy and Easter eggs. But the real reason people celebrate Easter isn’t simply for the material they receive, but for the symbolic biblical background. The colored eggs and candy are simple decorations to the holiday.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the hunger artist, I realized how strong the Hunger artist must have been to stay alive for the amount of time he did while fasting. In my eyes I saw it as he was starving himself. But honestly, the fact that the Hunger Artist starved himself for so long for the sake of God was very interesting. It shows how strong of a connection he must have with his religion fasting for such a long amount of time. A lot of people can't even go over a 10 days without eating the food they love nowadays. Again, with this story I did not fully understand what the Hunger Artist meant when at the end he says there wasn't any food he likes to eat why he starves himself. At first, I thought that was (bluntly) stupid. I didn’t understand why he would so something so dumb as to starve himself just because there wasn't a food that FULLY satisfied him. But after the discussion (Pruss), I now realize his meaning behind it.
Tahliah M. Davidson
After the discussion on "A Hunger Artist" I really understood what he meant by trying to feed his soul and finding no satisfaction other than fasting. While we were discussing it I was reminded of a previous discussion in which we talked about man's need to know why. We are always asking questions, and needing answers whether in life or daily events we crave knowledge. And I think that might also be a part of his hunger, he couldn't find anything to satisfy his hunger, nothing could fill the hole in his body and soul. I just thought it was connected.
ReplyDelete1) I didn't like the lottery. It was confusing and very harsh. I know its fiction but the author has to have some kind of problem to think of things like that. Other then that the story had a good message. All the people in the story think that what they're doing is okay because they haven't known any different but if they stepped outside of the box then they'd see there's more to living and their tradition. All the people living in the town are losing a part of their identity because they're conforming to a tradition that they might not all agree with and because they're not living the way they want they're all living the way they think they're supposed to or the way the town is telling them to. It reminds me of Dee in "Everyday Use" because she was identifying with her heritage but the wrong kind of heritage she wasn't relating to her family's personal heritage and by doing so she was losing out of part of her identity and can never be truly individual.
ReplyDelete2) The Hunger Artist also had a very good message. He gave up eating for 40 days and he didn't do it for the publicity. Though he liked some attention the attention was bad and made him even more depressed. The attention didn't satisfy him like he thought it would. He was never satisfied. Because the people didn't know why or appreciate that he was starving himself he didn't like the attention. The attention made him rethink himself. The fact that the people don't appreciate that he's doing such an amazing thing makes him think that its not amazing and so instead of not listening and appreciating himself because he knows why he's doing it, he doesn't even appreciate himself. Because he will never be satisfied with himself and what he's done he will never fully be himself. He will always be losing that part of his identity
1. My thoughts on the short story “The Lottery” were that it was crazy how the people in this town were able to kill someone with stones. Also how long the stoning had been going on for, you would think that this ritual would have disappeared over time or that the people in the town would protest the stoning because it was murder but they kept the crazy tradition. Also it amazed me how calm Tessie Hutchinson was in the beginning of the story but when her named was called to be stoned it was like a switch went off in her head and she panicked, but not in a way that I would have expected. She was accusing them of not giving her husband enough time to choose and she wanted them to allow him to pick again which was very shocking because Tessie wanted to put the burden on someone else rather than her family. Instead of saying this is wrong we are killing people she was accusing them of doing it unfairly by not giving her husband enough time to choose and wanted to start the process all over which would still result in the outcome of someone being stoned to death. That was why this story was so shocking.
ReplyDelete2. When reading “A Hunger Artist” I thought that the man was not satisfied with himself and gave up eating because it wasn’t making him happy and he couldn’t find any food that he liked. Also that he did not to it for all the publicity that he got but just because eating wasn’t as satisfying to himself as fasting was. I think that the man was searching for something more in his life and was only happy when he wasn’t eating.
~Nicole Treschitta~