Roulette Chapter 3.1 Summary

Gambling and the unpredictability of the roulette wheel stand at the center of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Gambler. Despite the fact that it is not a very rational activity, gambling captures the enthusiasms of many in The Gambler, enthralling those characters that are intoxicated by the feelings of victory. Experienced gamblers often work out strategies to ensure success, or at least a greater chance of success. Unfortunately, these types of patterns and strategies simply do not apply in games of chance like roulette. As Jeff Love describes, there is not a “fixed constant or indubitable ground permitting a deductive determination of the results of each turn of the wheel” in the game of roulette (Love 373). Put more simply, roulette is a game of

If he neither nicks nor throws out, the number thrown is called the chance. Then he throws the dice again.

c) iii): equal to about 0. When you roll two dice, it is impossible to roll a sum of 1. The lowest sum you can roll with two dice is 2.

The Spanish Roulette is a fictional account of events in the life of a young Puerto Rican named Sixto who swears to avenge for his sister’s assault. According to the story, Sixto’s sister had been raped by a local gang member who Sixto assures must suffer the same pain as his sister before he can finally kill him. Evidenced by the story, Sixto fights the thought of killing his sister’s tormentor while loading his revolver, but finally, snaps and decides to go ahead with his plan thereby leaving any logic and moral reasoning not to kill the gang member. The author, Ed Vega’s epic account of the life of Sixto closely resembles his first-person account of the life in Puerto Rico where the street is controlled by gang members who could rob from innocent families, handle drugs and unauthorized weapons including guns, and go about their business without being interfered by people in the community or the police (Lee). This essay asserts that based on the author’s argument and character representation, revenge is the only hope for the weak in the face of trouble when even the society cannot intervene and this argues that Ed Vega proved as creative and a competent writer by using the various features of poetic writing to create the intended image, environment, characters, and build on the theme of revenge.

In Shirley Jackson’s  “The Lottery”, There is an annual lottery game in this village on June 27th of every year, this lottery is a ritual that has been in the village for long since, everyone in the village would gather at the time square to participate in it. Mr.Sumner, the lottery official will then brings out the black box and declared the lottery open and states all the rules, “Now, I’ll read the names--heads of families first--and the men com out and take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hand without looking at it until everyone has had a turn. Everything clear?” (BBR 93). One of this papers will have a black spot that is put on by the coal company owner, whoever gets the spotted paper with the black dot wins the lottery and will be stoned to death.

Summers and Mr. Graves, the postman, hosted the lottery. Once Mr. Summers was done stirring up the papers in the boxed that had always been used for the lottery he started calling names of the father that would pick a paper. Once all the families had a paper they would all open it and see who had that marked paper. Once that family was chosen, every member would be chose again and them family member with the marked paper was be stoned.

The first technique present in this story is symbolism. Two items are used during the lottery: a black box and stones. In a way, the black box holds each and every persons destiny and fate. The fact that it is black is a symbol of what they ahve witnessed every year: death. Every year, the lottery is taken place and, at the same time, death makes its mark. It comes back to take whoever’s been left behind. Like the old saying “It is always darkest before dawn”, death hangs over them until they have pleased the gods; until they have a lifetime supply of crops. This story brings us into the darker side of the lottery. The side where not everything is as it seems. If it weren’t for the color of the box, it would have been harder to interpret where the story was heading off to. The second items where the stones: “the young boys begin to gather their stones and make a pile in the corner, guarding them like their most prized weapon”. The stones symbolize the beating of a person, in

You don't know what to expect, but you play it anyway, wagering your heart, everything: just for a chance at it.

A Rock- The rock symbolizes what is used to execute the person chosen for the lottery (death). In the beginning of the story the children were making piles of their favorite stones. The stone is the murder weapon. Stoning a person to death is a quick process. Anyone of any age can fling rocks which makes killing someone with stones relatively simple.

The type of event that the lottery seems to be is a gathering where they chose to kill one person by stoning them to death.

Example: Patrick flipped a number cube 40 times. A 5 appeared 10 times. The experimental probability of rolling a 5 is 10 out of 40 or 25%

Revenge is one of the themes presented in the short story “Spanish Roulette”. Throughout the short story Sixto, the main character, is deciding whether or not to get revenge on a gang member of the neighborhood who raped his sister. Sixto already has a gun, has convinced himself that he has to go through with it, and is on the verge of putting it to action by the end of the story. Even though Sixto does seems to have second thoughts in the middle of the story, I do believe that he will get revenge. PARAGRAPH

It is apparent that this is almost a mechanical event. Mr. Summers gives instructions on how to proceed, but the people have done this so many times they hardly pay attention (Jackson, 250). How they go about the lottery does not seem nearly as important as making sure everyone has a chance at the prize (Jackson, 251). Truly, a western culture ideal. Jackson may be trying to highlight the fact that society has become so preoccupied with getting our share of the pie that we do not stop and consider the consequences to ourselves, or to others.

Community cards are cards that the whole "community" can use and there is five of them. Together will your two hole cards whoever makes the best five card hand wins. In regards to the community cards, they are dealt face up in the middle of the table. The first three cards dealt are known as the flop, then the turn and finally the river. The river is your last chance to catch the card you have been waiting for to make your hand a winner. Before and after the flop as well as before and after the river there are rounds of betting. The first two people to the left of the dealer must place a forced bet called the blind. Blinds are to assure there is always money in the pot. In order to see the flop everyone must call the amount of the blind or fold depending on their hole cards. There are four ways to bet, Check, Raise, Fold and Call. Checking means you are betting nothing and passing bet to the next player. Raising is obvious, it means you are putting more money into the pot. Folding is when you do not want to call or your cards are so bad you don't even want to check. And finally, calling is when you match the raise made by another player to see the next card. You have all four options to choose from except when a player has bet before you and then you cannot check.

Second, it is to see the bets of the other players and compare hands (a high bet meaning a seemingly good hand, low bet meaning the opposite). And third, to “bluff” your opponents for any reason. When betting, you can also “fold”. This means that you drop out of the game and cannot come back in. If choosing to fold, you lose your bet, but will not have to bet again. This type of play is done if the person does not have any sort of hand going for him. Play continues until all cards are dealt and all bets have been placed. Then you show your cards, starting with the person who placed the final bet first. The winner takes the “pot” which is all the bets that have been placed in the middle.