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The Gambler Themes

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The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi, encompasses a broad range of important themes and issues portrayed in media today. Particularly it reminded me heavily of the constant censorship battle still ongoing in China. As I personally have many friends that travel to and from China I’m able to hear their personal accounts of how different the media is presented to them there. Social media websites such as Facebook and Youtube are entirely blocked while others rumour that Google search results are entirely changed to fit communist propaganda. It is worrying to see how the world is mirroring “The Gambler”. Society is more interested in Keeping Up with the Kardashians than they are with keeping up with current issues in Syria. As shown with how Ong’s
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The short story “the Golden Thomas Vargas”, magical realism is evident in the union opposites of gambling. In the modern era gambling is notorious for cheating, lying, and stealing, however in Agua Santa gambling is sacred to the people. When his wife and Concha Diaz force Vargas out of his house, he takes on the life of gambling. When Vargas begins to gamble the narrator explains the audience that the townspeople “could tolerate a man who mistreats his family, a man who was lazy and a troublemaker, we never paid that money he borrowed, the gambling debts were sacred”(73). Magical realism can be seen in two instances here.

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In Paolo Bacigalupi’s ‘The Gambler’, the main character, Ong, travels to the United States to work for a futuristic media company. This story emphasizes on three main ideas; media, information and technology. After reading the story, I connected the main themes to the world, to myself, and to this course. First, after reading, I connected the main ideas to both contrasting countries present in the story; these being Laos and America.

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Tradition is done by many around the world and depending on where you are from tradition can be good or bad. In the stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, we are presented with a similar tradition but a very different atmosphere around the people and the setting of said tradition. In this literary analysis essay we will look at the different atmosphere presented around the form of selection process that is shown in both stories and how this atmosphere can change the view of the reader. First off, the authors of both stories introduce some sort of tradition that must be carried out, for both of the stories it is a selection process. During this time the entire community gets together in the

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Usually there’s a winner in a lottery, but not in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story intrigued me by it's suspenseful nature and it's chaotic events. In small town America, they come together once a year to perform an annual tradition. Mrs. Jackson demonstrates literary devices such as foreshadowing, mood, and conflict in “The Lottery”. Foreshadowing is used quite a few times in “The Lottery”.

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"We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves. " How does this relate to the stories we have read? We are going to look at "The Lottery", "Texas v. Johnson", and "American flag stands for tolerance". Also we are going to talk about the acceptance characters do or do not show in these stories. In the stories many characters show the acceptance of others and many do not show acceptance.

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Fear is an emotion that is powerful enough to affect people’s lives and their decisions. In the short stories The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and Day of the Last Rock Fight by Joseph Witchill, fear plays a big role on both the protagonist’s lives. Both authors used fear as a determining factor for people’s loyalty, however, Jackson and Witchill have shown completely different sides of the effect that fear has on people. The authors have also depicted different persons that the characters are fearful for, whether it be their own person or someone they care about. Therefore, both the stories show that fear is a deciding factor in a person’s loyalty towards others.

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“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

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Literary Elements used in The Lottery By definition the word lottery means a process or thing whose success or outcome is measured by chance (“lottery”). To most people winning the lottery would conjure up excitement and overall good feelings. However, in the short story The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery has a twisted and horrific meaning.

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Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a story about the tradition of a small village, is painted in impeccable details of peace, and serenity on a warm summer day, as everyone follows the tradition they have known since a long time ago despite the true intentions and meaning of it forgotten. The Lottery taking place annually is like no other lottery, it paints the true picture of the horror that epitomizes the tradition that none of the villagers dare to question, despite it creating separation between gender and families and ruining

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The Symbolism of The Lottery One big symbol that the short story is discreet about is the black box that is repeated throughout the short story symbolizes fear to adults which could affect even the most innocent. The black box appears to be the only paraphernalia that is still being used in the tradition of having a lottery. Mr. Summers is the one who is running the lottery at the time. Mr. Summers is seen as a nice man, however, when he is introduced, he is seen with the black box. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that when the power of a tradition is given to a person, it could lead a crumbling society.

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Charmain Baker-Deer ENC1102 Mar 02, 2018 Essay draft 1 Topic: What is the theme of “The Lottery”? “The Lottery” is about small town, with a population of three hundred people. Everyone from the village is subjected to participates in an annual ritual, where members are required to pick from a black box to determine their destiny. In “The Lottery,” Jackson highlights human kind capacity of victimizing violence and tradition to control the masses.

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

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It devotes vast energy and resources to control information as a way to maintain social stability and assert political control. The Chinese government’s sophisticated instruments of censorship and control aim to prevent all potential sources of independent reporting. The comprehensive management consists of three main categories: legal, political, and economic. Legal methods create an environment that is unfriendly to press freedom through restrictive laws and regulations, including the structure of official media regulatory

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Furthermore, in many developing countries or in those with oppressive regimes, government actions are more important than the Internet in defining how information is produced and consumed, and by whom. There are so many counties that use strict censorship in their media. “Present-day examples include Russia as a territorially shrunken successor state to the former USSR, China and North Korea” (Höchli, 2010). Censorship in North Korea is known to be the most intense among the world. With a government such as theirs, they are able to take strict control over communications.

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