Harrison Gergeron

Identify three potential themes. Explain and support each

1.     The first theme would by the government control over all people.

The government controls everyone by forcing them to where different devises in order to keep them from getting any advantage over anyone else. Such as weighing down the strong or forcing the beautiful to where mask.

2.      The next theme that I saw was the equality for everyone.

The government tried to make everyone the same by imposing handicaps to anyone with any type of advantage to anyone else. The smart where forced to where devises in their ears to prevent them from taking advantage of their superior intellect.

3.      The third theme is not to fight the government.

The government issued harsh punishments to anyone who did not follow the law like “Two years in prison and a two thousand dollar fine for every ball I took out…”

The Lottery

The Lottery Why do the town’s people continue this tradition? This tradition has gone on as long as anyone in this town can remember. Even old man Warner stated that “There’s always been a lottery”. I believe the town continues this lottery because they have done it for so long that they don’t believe there is any better way. They also believe that giving up the lottery is “Nothing but trouble in that” and that anyone who gives up the lottery is a “Pack of young fools”

. As for myself, I don’t understand why anyone would just randomly kill someone in their own town, let alone get the whole town to go along with it. I might understand a little better if I knew why the people needed to die. Like to please a god or stop a volcano from erupting but I just don’t see the reason this started.

So I guess the whole reason the town doesn’t stop is they just don’t know of any better way.

Cathedral

Cathedral

How does Raymond’s carrier prepare the reader for the Narrators change of heart?

    Raymond’s carrier was as varied as any could be. From working as a blue collar worker, doing as many odd jobs as he could to support his family, to finally going to college and getting his degree. Even after college, he had to work odd jobs until he could make a living as a full time writer. All this allowed Raymond Carver to go through many changes in his own life and to meet a wide variety of people.

    The narrator has a change of heart when he tries to describe what a cathedral is like to someone who has never been able to see with his eyes. This is finally accomplished when the blind man makes a suggestion.”Will you do me a favor? I got an idea. Why don’t you find us some heavy paper? And a pen. We’ll do something. We’ll draw one together.” Later the blind man asked the narrator to close his eyes as he drew. This allowed the narrator to experience what the blind man did. In a way you could say that this experience opened the narrator’s eyes in a whole new way.

    Raymond most has gone through a similar experience himself to be able to describe how this event could change someone’s heart.

Everyday Use

Everyday Use

 What is Heritage?

 Dee (Wangero) would define heritage as a way of remembering the past by preserving the family antiques. With the quilts Wangero would “Hang them,” she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with quilts.

Maggie and the mother believed that the quilts were being saved for a certain person (Maggie) and that Maggie should be the one to decide what she would do with them, even if it meant using them in her own home and ruining after many years of use and turning them to rags.

 Dee views heritage as a legacy that should be preserved while Maggie and her mother view heritage as more of a birthright or inheritance.

A & P

A & P

Does Sammy evolve over the course of the story?

Y or N? Explain and provide examples.

    Sammy does not evolve over the course of the story. In fact he has a one track mind throughout the course of the entire story. He starts with in walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits and finishes with leaving the store just to look for these girls.

    From the very beginning Sam is fascinated with these three girls and the way they are dressed (or not dressed).  Sam even goes as far as to describe the tan line at the bottom of one girls back side.

    As the story continues Sam continues to follow these girls every movement. He describes each isle they go up and down and who they talk to including a brief encounter with the butcher. Sam describes how the other people react to these three girls, including how a married man was drooling over these three girls.

    The story comes to a climax when the girls are confronted by the store manager about their lack of appropriate clothing. Shortly hereafter Sam quits his job saying he wasn’t happy with the way the manager embarrassed the girls. The manager replies that Sam is being foolish but Sam does not listen. He quits anyway, takes off his apron and geeky bow tie, and leaves to pursue the three girls just to find that they are nowhere to be found.

     All Sam is able to find is a mother with a young child that is screaming over candy. Sam’s lust cost him his job and we are left with the impression that Sam never does manage to find the girls.

William E. Hussla Jr.