You’ve all probably heard the statistics on what happens to Lottery winners. A majority of them end up no better or even worse off than before their victory. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it’s clear that everyone who wins this town’s lottery ends up worse off than they were before.
This quotation comes at the end of the story, so if you haven’t read it, this will definitely be a spoiler.
“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”
Literary Classroom Application
This quote from “The Lottery” accentuates one of the story’s themes that societies are selective on what rules and traditions they choose to uphold. The short story also sheds light on the need to examine rituals and traditions.
Mental Strength Moment
So what beliefs are you holding onto that are killing your progress? One of the greatest breakthroughs I have had as a teacher and a human being is discovering things that I thought were true weren’t true at all.
How many things do we continue doing just because it’s how they used to be done or they were done that way when we were in school. Use the vocabulary example.
I used to hold certain truths about eating and gaining weight that I was urged to examine by my life coach. I clung to truths that food is fun, that you are supposed to overeat during the holidays, that I had to eat as much as I could if food were provided, that nobody loses weight while on vacation.
Once I examined them, I realized these “truths” were preventing me from becoming my best self. SO let’s not be like Old Man Werner, clinging to truths that no longer serve us.
Links
- Teaching “The Lottery” Podcast Episode
- “The Lottery” Blog Post
- Short Story Catalog at ELACOMMONCORELESSONPLANS.com
- Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
