To comment on the comments…

Hello my lovelies.

Thank you for being so active on your class blogs. The discussions are great to see!

It has been brought to my attention that some people feel like the comments are a bit “harsh”.

I have now read through almost all of the comments, and I appreciate the connections you are making to each others’ posts, world events, other literature, and life in general. It’s great to read your opinions! I truly enjoy it.

This is probably one of the first times you’ve had to “publish” formal writing in a public forum, so remember it can be scary for some of your peers. Be careful that you do not attack others' views in a negative way. It’s great to have differing opinions, that’s what makes our world interesting! But present a different opinion in a way that invites discussion, rather than silencing people.

Some language that may help you to comment more positively –

“I understand what you are saying, but have you thought of this?”
“Good points, but I disagree with some things you’ve said”
“Your post got me thinking… what about this?”

On the other hand, if your post is commented on, feel privileged. You have started an intellectual discussion! If someone disagrees with what you have said, stand up for what you believe in, and keep arguing your own points! This will help you make your points clear, focused and well argued. Take the time to reflect on what is being said – you may want to edit your post after you hear from your peers. I do not mark them until the due date, so you have time to go back and make sure your thoughts are in order.

Keep commenting! It’s great.

Old Man Warner VS. Young Folks

The significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the “young folks” is that the next generations are the ones who will decide the future. Old Man Warner having lived for more than half a century, knows it's time for the younger ones to take over the tradition of the “Lottery.” However, in his opinion, young people are constantly looking for newer and more advanced life styles. Firstly, I believe this is the correct way to go. If people never advance and move forward, the society would always be the same. It is up to the future generations to replace the modern society. Most importantly, they need to learn and improve from it and not revolve around an out-dated society. Secondly, Old Man Warner is too biased about his tradition. In a sense, he seems brain-washed. How can stoning a person be acceptable? For example, when Mary was being stoned, someone gave her son a stone. How generous of that person to give the boy a stone that he can throw at to kill his mother. That person acted like it was an everyday task. Only then, did someone realize the wrong doing of this tradition and it was the victim's son. He was just a child around five years old, even he knew this is wrong. It's always when the consequences have occurred before people realize what they are doing. Inevitably, Old Man Warner is not the only person who is brain-washed, aside from the fact that he has lived his life through the tradition. In the story it says, “in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery,” The person who had that idea must have been the a genius. It was the century's most ingenious decision. That person deserves the Nobel Prize Award. It must have been the newer generations who have FINALLY realized it is wrong to stone people to death. That person deserves the Nobel Prize Award. Lastly, Old Man Warner's concerns do have a point and should not be neglected. Young people are too influential these days. They can't make the right decisions themselves and are persuaded too easily. For example, there are teenagers who are persuaded to take drugs or decide to hang out with friends everyday rather than attending school. Also, why do you think there are restrictions for people under the age of 18? It is to prevent the immature decisions made by them. Imagine what would happen if a teenager went to vote and persuaded all his friends to vote for the same candidate, who is completely useless. Alternatively, candidates can bribe teenagers who have no self-control over their decisions. Again, these people are the ones who will decide the fate of our society. That is why Old Man Warner believes the young people are unreliable.

-GORDON F. (C) 2009

The Lottery Evaluation

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.

Some traditions and rules are necessary to keep our society safe for people to live in. The laws set up by the government are a crucial part to maintaining a safe and clean environment. Along with these laws, I believe people who break these laws deserve to face the consequences, such as serving time or paying a fine, but one part of society that should be re-evaluated is the death penalty. Many parts of the world have already chosen to get rid of the death penalty for serious criminals, but others have not. The death penalty is a bad way of punishment because it contradicts the law set up by the authorities. Murder is illegal. How is death as a punishment any different than murder? It is not. The death penalty is just like murder because it involves killing someone, who may not be a model citizen, but is still a person with rights. I understand that in order to be sentenced to the death penalty, the criminal must have done a very bad deed, but there are other ways of punishment that does not involve such a inhuman action. Life sentence to jail or a certain amount of years without early probation is a more suitable punishment. Just like the lottery in the short story, The Lottery, the death penalty should be re-evaluated and if possible, should be exterminated.

The Lottery- Response

The significance of Old Man Warner ‘s words is that since he is the oldest man in the town, he has the knowledge of what the original tradition of the lottery is all about because he had been in it for over seven decades. He repeatedly showed warning to the younger parents and the younger generation of what they are in for if they do away with the lottery. Being involved in the lottery for such a long period of time, Old Man Warner knows best about the risks that he is taking. Young people in our society today are easily attracted to things that do not always end up the right way. For instance, as young people, the most common excuse to escape their faults is the “everyone’s doing it” excuse. One of the greatest and most common examples is smoking; young people get too caught up with their social life that they forget about protecting themselves. The risks and harmful situations they are putting themselves into can cause their lifetime: addiction. Things do not always have to have a first try; the best thing to do is to step out of things or situations like this. In other circumstances, for example, peer pressure also plays a huge role in our society today. Many young people are influenced negatively by their friends or peers. Hence, if they do not follow what their friends do, their friends will either go from not being friends with them anymore, to a more serious situation: life threatening. The heavy moral lesson that Old Man Warner had spoken out to us is that things are necessary to be thought twice rather than once because the littlest situation may cause a serious addiction that can lead to death.

Young Folks: What are we aiming for?

Young people are either looked down upon or seen as the future. People (adults) see us as fragile and influential individuals, and when we are given the right information and have a positive attitude, we can accomplish great things and make right what the older generations have done wrong. We have the ability to change the outlook of future generations on issues like multiculturalism and human rights. We are sort of like trees, give us water and good soil with nutrients, and we will grow to be big, strong, and we will help recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen (we give back to whomever decides to give us something). But put us in the wrong environment with not enough sunlight, we wither and die.



Adolescents also have a tendency to start to think for themselves. Yes, we are still learning and growing and are subject to peer pressure, but we have our own minds and sometimes we choose to use our own judgement. We deal with different situations that our parents might have had to deal with. For example, religion. We live in a very multicultural society where it is okay to "hang out" with someone who is not the same race or colour as you are. A popular problem that comes up all the time is dating someone who is not the same race, religion or colour as you are. Our parents have given us the gift of life, and we do have somewhat of an obligation to at least obey their wishes, but when it comes to someone you have to spend the rest of your life with you have to make a smart choice. Just because someone is the same religion as you does not mean that they will have the exact same core values as you do (which is what most parents argue). In a multicultural society, us "youngsters" have to learn that we cannot fear what we do not know much about. We need to make smart choices, and we have to trust our own gut feeling because sometimes our parents or the older people we look up to may be wrong.

We also have an important role for our natural environment too. Generations before us have been ruining our environment. It is only now that adults are trying to train us to go green and do our part to give back to the environment. It is almost an obligation that we have to clean up the mess that past generations have made. We love our earth, but we hate doing the dirty work. We have been unfortunately born into a society where people are already faced with these problems, its now our job to help try to reverse the symptoms of our sick earth.

Us kids and teenagers will only be young for so long. Then we will grow up and become the adults who will either see the potential right or potential wrong in the future generations. We will do our best to be the best we can be, and change the world to make it a better place. Being born into a more open-minded society (even though we still have to keep our traditions in order) and being taught to go green is really going to help us help earth.

How to post...

Here is what you should do:

• Log in!
• Come to our class blog
• Create new post
• Write your heart out!

Here is what you shouldn't do:

• Don't write your response as a comment... I can't easily find them that way.
• Don't post them on your blog (well you can, just do it on here too).
  

FIRST BLOG QUESTION!

After our great class discussion about Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" I thought it would be appropriate to continue our thoughts on here.

We didn't get to discuss this in class, but I want to look at one section of the text that may pertain to you:

"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."

Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while.

Comment on one, or all of the following:

What part of our society should be re-evaluated? Is there anything that we do that should be questioned? OR is it acceptable to live according to customs in order to keep things in order.

What is the significance of Old Man Warner bringing up the "young folks". What role do young people play in our society?


Due: Nov 20