Randifts: A Short Story

I stand and stare in disbelief as the car’s bonnet is crumpled into the bulky metal pole on the side of the road. My limbs are numb and I am drenched from head to toe. The glistening droplets continuously drip off the tip of my nose as I realize how much trouble I’m going to get into. The wind wails around me as if it’s saying “you’re going to be in so much trouble”. I suddenly get back into the car and attempt to reverse the car so no one will see the car rammed into the power pole. Mum and Dad's pristine new car. Scratched. Dented. Ruined.

Ernie has always been a little messed up, he has lived in Missouri for the 32 long years of his life. On the day that changed his life forever, November 22, 1996. Him and his family were driving to the mall and they got into an accident. His Mom and Dad both died and Ernie was very depressed. He got the notes, of what made the car accident happen, an inspection failure with the Engine. He did not know what to do with his life. He almost committed suicide, but then out of rage, the decided he was going to make the person who caused the car accident. He went searching for months, and finally came to the conclusion that the person that last assessed the car was Eddie Thompson.

The small village in this short story contains “only about three hundred people” (Jackson 2). Such a small population doesn’t allow for much class stratification; however, the villagers can be divided into four groups. The children who innocently run wild and talk amongst themselves make up the first class. They don’t have much purpose at all during the lottery; in fact, during the first part of the lottery process, Jackson doesn’t even mentioned them. The women who gossip and stand by their husbands make up the second class. Even though they don’t draw during the first part of the lottery (with the exception of Mrs. Dunbar), they provide commentary in the form of gossip such as “[t]ime sure goes fast” (Jackson 3) and “[t]here goes my old man” (Jackson 4). The men who lead their families and act maturely make up the next class. They don't talk much, but have a higher class that of their wives and children. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves who control the lottery make up the final class. They act as the leaders of the village, while the men act as leaders of their families. This class structure gives the village minor divisions that influence the short story.

All the towns people get together on June 27 in the middle of the town square for the drawing of the lottery. The townspeople the lottery is just like any other town gathering like a holiday program, school play, or a dance. Mr. Summers is the person in charge of the lottery; she has to gather the information from all the townspeople about their households the day before the lottery to make a list for the next day. He places papers in a box and mixes them around with one paper with a black dot on it. The townspeople pick out a piece of paper, but only the head of the house which is in most cases the husband. The family that draws the black dot has to then draw once again to see who will lose in their specific household. Unfortunately the person in the family that draws the dot will be stoned to death. This tradition of the town takes place every year and everyone is forced to participate in the lottery. Traditions are hard to break or stray away from; especially in this specific story.

It leaves individuals no other option but to follow the traditions laid out, and feel rejected. When Mr. Adams mentions to Old Man Warner, ‘“that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”’ (4). Old Man Warner says, ‘“Pack of crazy fools [...] listening to the young folks [...] first thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns [and not corns]”’ (4). Mr. Warner being the oldest man symbolizes his great wisdom that people in the society look up to. Hence he is seen as a ‘leader’, who labels young people as ‘“pack of crazy young fools”’ (4). He shows that he is close-minded because he is not willing to consider young people’s ideas about stopping the lottery. He has bias opinions about young people and therefore can not see that they have great ideas for the lottery and are not “crazy” and do not all lead to poverty, like Mr. Summers who is able to run a village without poverty because the author mentions how the “children [go to] school [...] women [wore] dresses and sweaters”(1) and that the men wear “shirt and [...] jeans” (2) which shows the decent lifestyle the villagers have . Mr. Warner’s blunt statement causes individuals’ voices in the society to be oppressed, like Mr. Adams, who tries to bring change in his society since he is the one who mentions the ‘giving up [of] the lottery’ in other societies. Instead he is left to only follow

there is quiet conversation between friends. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, arrives with a black box. The original box was lost many years ago, even before Old Man Warner, the oldest person in the village, can remember. Each year Mr. Summers suggests that they make a new box, but no one is willing to go against tradition. The people were willing to use slips of paper instead of woodchips as markers, as the village had grown too large for the wood chips to fit in the box. A list of all the families and households in the village is made, and several matters of who will draw for each family are decided. Mr. Summers is sworn in as the official of the lottery in a specific ceremony. Some people remember that there used to be a song and salute as part of the ceremony, but these are no longer performed. Tessie Hutchinson arrives in the square late because she has forgotten what day it was. She joins her husband and children before the lottery can begin. Mr. Summers explains the lottery’s rules: each family will be called up to the box and draw a slip of paper. One of the villagers tells Old Man Warner that the people of a nearby village are thinking about ending the lottery. Old Man Warner laughs at the idea. He believes that giving up the lottery would cause nothing but trouble, and a loss of civilized behavior. A woman responds that some places have already given up the lottery. Everyone finishes drawing, and each

Trickster Stories, written by Paul Randin, is directed towards a Native American audience and serves to show the duality of Trickster. The story shadows the adventures and mishaps of a trickster figure. The quote takes place in the midst of his outlandish adventures and is found at the point during the story where he wishes to return home to his wife and son. This desire to return to his family and village shows that despite his chaotic and destructive nature, he ultimately craves order and in some instances shows to create order as well.

On a sunny afternoon at the school playground, Randle and Jim were playing on the monkey bars. Randle tried to skip a rung, missed it and fell to the ground. That fall resulted in a broken wrist. The very next day, Randle sat on the school bench with his arm in a cast and watched Jim play on the monkey bars. Suddenly Jim decides he is going to try to skip one of the bars. There’s no way he’d miss and fall too. Within seconds, Jim’s hand slips off the bar. Randle watched unable to protect his friend. As Jim begins to fall he tries to put his arms out to brace his fall and just as he hits the ground, pain shoots up his arm like an electric shock. In no time a doctor was putting a cast on Jim’s arm and told him he had to take it easy for 12

It feels as though this boy, a spirit that is supposed to be free is trapped, trapped inside of a school that looks like it has seen better days. Just by looking at this painting, by studying the sad expression on the boy’s face, seeing the dark ominous clouds floating above the building, and the dark shadows leading to the building itself. He’s stuck inside the building with no way to escape it, treated as though he and the rest are prisoners forced to be. The way he’s looking at the other children give off the feeling of want, like he wants to be like them-free, truly unstuck from the vise that’s taken hold of him, one that has made him so miserable. However, there’s another scene playing here other than the trap presented before us in this

Everyone has their own view of life. Some people are selfish, others are selfless, and there are also people who are a slight mix of the two. The various views of the world are shown in Any Rand’s The Fountainhead. One of the view shown is an uncompromising view of life. Howard Roark and Dominique Francon both use this approach to life in every aspect of their being. But this view has brought them both up and down in the world. Because of this, there are multiples angles at which the uncompromising approach to life is viewed: whether or not this approach is practical, why or why not this approach is or isn’t practical, and whether or not Rand appears to find this approach to life practical.

I think Ayn Rand can be a good and bad thing for a society. She believes in individualism wholeheartedly, and she doesn’t even really want to hear other people’s opinion. In the fourth video, a lady tried to express her opinion , and Ayn Rand didn’t want to hear what she had to say. She believed this was because of what went on in Russia when she was growing up. Caring about only yourself is a good thing to a certain extent. People should get to choose their occupation, who they marry, if they want to have kids, etc, but if all the people in the military only looked out for themselves, we wouldn’t have a military to defend us. I believe societies do need a government to keep everything in order, but they shouldn’t have complete control. There

Victoria checked the backpack of ANFO. “It’s ANFO Charlie, an enriched fertilizer. Soak it in diesel and it’s the most powerful explosive this side of a crate of TNT. Timothy McVeigh destroyed a twelve-story federal building with a couple of these. I can do the same to your entire little world and everything in it.” Vic said to Charlie.

She recalled her previous victorious battles against the disgusting racist, the vile sexual offender, the anti-feminist CEO, the-her sidekick placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, brining her back to present day.

I mean, heck, I would be sore as hell if I was upstaged by a ranger coming to kick me out of a place I had scheme my ass off to keep. My one hope would be they live and laugh and love and left. I’ve found that it is respectable to have no illusions—and safe—and profitable—and dull.”

But, Master Levi, the Brischst is the heaviest lance we have!" Armin exclaimed as he lifted one of the wooden planks that made their makeshift training arena. His statement was only emphasized by Jean's poorly hidden grunts of efforts. The taller squire wheezed while he carried the massive and blunt weapon toward Eren. "Eren's too tired, he would never be able to—"