Shirley Jackson

A. Attention Getter: I know the majority of the class are thinking, “Oh no, is that a cricket ball? Anything, but that lame sport.” I bet everyone would rather watch the Cleveland Browns lose to a high school football team or even watch Donald Trump play golf for the whole day than watch a single boring cricket game. B. Reason to Listen: It has become a meme to insult the sport of cricket, and rightfully so. Cricket is not popular sport in America, and it will never be accepted as a major…

The two novels, The Giver and 1984 have similarities in character settings and they are both dystopian worlds created by the authors. However, the main themes delivered by the two authors are different. Although there are many similarities in the two stories, there is also a difference. The messages the both authors want to tell the readers through the stories are different. The theme of The Giver is the significance of memory to human life. The author, Lowis Lowry decided to write this book…

In both “The Big Cat” and “You’ll apologize if you have to”, we see stories that are about having control of your life and to not be afraid of change. They follow very similar narrative structures that led from an initial problem to a conflict in the middle of the story and finished with an open ending. In the open ending the readers were allowed to control the end of the story, which I believe ties into the main world idea of each story. “The Big Cat”, by Erdrich, started the exposition with…

It was March 15th, the day of the community raffle. Everyone in the community has been waiting for this day to come since the grand prize was announced to be 1 million dollars. Unfortunately, every family can qualify for the raffle only once. If you disobey this rule your entire family will be disqualified from the raffle. “Wake up! It’s the day of the raffle,” yelled Jay’s mom, “make sure to make yourself look presentable for today.” “Coming!” shouted Jay. “Why do we even have to do this? It’s…

Lab 13: The Surprising Science of Happiness 1. In the Tedtalk given by Dan Gilbert, he talks about lottery winners and paraplegics and asks the audience which one we would prefer? He did this because most people would just assume that the lottery winners would naturally be happier. His point, however, was that despite what most would think, lottery winners were not much happier than their control group and both the lottery winners and control group were only slightly happier than paraplegics.…

Children and Fast Food Advertisement 6. What would 6 mean if you ask a random stranger on the street? Some possible answers would be that there are 6 sides to a hexagon, or that 3+3 equals 6, or that a video on vine lasts 6 seconds. But, in this specific case the number 6 signifies the number of hours an average child ages 5-16 spends in front of a screen a day, in a week that child can spend more than 42 hours a week in front of a screen (Wakefield, Jane. “Children spend six hours or more a…

Today, it is a wonderful day. With the first ray of sun, birds start singing their melody. Today, it is a special day for the little girl. She wakes up at five, an hour ahead of her usual time. It is still dark. With her small torchlight she looks at the calendar hanging on the opposite wall. Another young girl is still deep asleep on the bed below the wall. She waits for her best friend to get up. Today she will be ten years old and the first person to wish her ‘happy birthday’ will…

A hot summer afternoon it was. Julia, my host at Innisfree HawalBagh (Uttarakhand), showed me the walk way to Kosi river. Walking down was comfortable under the shade of deodar trees on a sunny blue sky day. As soon as I reached the river, I could not resist myself from a swim. I saw few ladies from the nearby village, filling water. The water was cold and the day was sweaty, giving me immense pleasure to swim. I am a water baby. I did not notice the minutes passing by as I kept enjoying in my…

Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is about a tradition where the villagers must make a sacrifice in order for their crops to have a good season. Tessie Hutchinson picks the slip of paper with the black coal mark in the center and she is the one to be sacrificed which means the villagers, even her family, must stone her to death. The theme of this story is that traditions can be good or bad. Traditions can result in lots of different scenarios. Tessie wins the lottery and she gets stoned…

"Today was going to be a long day." I thought as I walked down the peaceful sidewalk. The weather was the perfect. A careful balance between the gentle warmth of the sun and the subtle cool of a light breeze that frolicked around me. I was on my way to Vincent's house and was a bit apprehensive. Tonight was going to be a full moon; and -for me- quite a full night. "This will be a night to remember." I thought with a sigh, "A night I hope I don't regret." I spotted his house…