The Ironical Aspects in Li Rui's Electing a Thief

Old Man Warner, an important person in society, advocates villagers continue to participate in the dated tradition of the lottery. The result of this was an innocent citizen in the

The behavior of voters has great importance to politics as the people decide mainly who wins. The study of the behavior of the electorate has increased as politicians seek to appeal to the voters and find ways to gain followers and most importantly votes. The two articles Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory and The Responsible Electorate discuss the behavior of voters in the United States, and the importance of the electorate.

Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.

“I [Death] am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550). This example of imagery, a literary device, in The Book Thief juxtaposed how Death was haunted by the cruelty of human action, just as how humans were haunted by Death. Literary devices were implemented by authors to create gripping stories that they wanted to share with their readers. Novelist Aldous Huxley once said that “the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about everything”. While casual readers may not realize the intricacies of literary devices in writing, they could definitely remember how the stories went. Through literary devices, stories can metamorphose into something greater and memorable. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, “To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E.

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.

One of the characters, Mr. Summers, gives everyone the directions of how to play the lottery. The author does not disclose to us what the directions are, but the reader would probably assume that a lottery is a gambling game that is played in order to win a prize. In contrast, the irony of this story is that whoever receives a piece of paper with a black mark is stoned to death. This approach is what makes this short story disturbing. It brings a discomforting thought as to why the villagers would ever behave in such a despicable manner. This ending is a great example of tragic irony because most of the story has no deliberate conflict until right at the very end when there was the abrupt death of Tessa.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

In Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Zusak uses many rhetorical devices, but perhaps the most prevalent is the colors. They are introduced in the prologue and remain apparent throughout the entirety of the novel. Death says he only uses them to district himself from his taxing job and to define each time he saw the book thief, but the reader can go beyond that and use them to understand the mood and atmosphere of each scene. The first color mentioned is white. Death associates white with Liesel because of the fallen snow when he first sees her at her brother’s funeral.

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

“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, reflects blind conformity by the villagers with a hint of rebellion. Every June 27th the lottery takes place; the prize for winning is death. The

This story mainly revolves around the theme of people’s blind faith in their tradition and customs. Before the actual truth about the lottery is revealed, the villagers are shown as witty, helpful, and cooperative. The villagers don’t know much about the origin of the lottery, but they are still preserving it as a tradition. Their blind faith in the lottery is killing an innocent person every year, yet they are following it without any logic. No one is forcing them to keep this tradition alive, still, they are doing this ritual every year. These people fear that if they stop the lottery, they will go back to living in the cage. They are so faithful to this tradition that they are ready to kill their own friends and family when they are told to.

Set in the depression times of post-World War II Italy, Graziadei and De Sica’s (1948) The Bicycle Thief narrates the story of Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), who, after finding a job as a bill poster, loses his bicycle to a young thief. He tries to look for it with his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola); however, despite seeing the thief, he fails to recover his bicycle. Desperate, he tries to steal a bike himself but is easily thwarted by a group of bystanders. They plan to bring him to the police station until the owner notices the weeping Bruno and, in an act of compassion, ask others to release the thief. In this paper, I argue that The Bicycle Thief

Comrade Pillai epitomizes the idea of a corrupt politician. During his first scene in the novel, Roy describes him as “walking through the world like a chameleon. Never revealing himself, never appearing not to. Emerging through chaos unscathed.” (Roy 15) Furthermore, Comrade Pillai champions himself as an ally of the oppressed and common people, but it is in reality a façade. Comrade Pillai is in reality a champion only for his own interests.

During elections in countries with corrupt governments, for example, it has to be decided whether the guarantee of every individual’s right to vote or who wins is more important. (Wong, Lecture, October 24) Moreover, deep divides continue to exist and separate groups in democratic countries by race, religion, language, and class, resulting in tension and, in some cases, oppression. Thus democracy, despite its emphasis on liberty, equality and plurality, can still be problematic.

Paulo Coelho, writer of The Devil and Miss Prym and Shirley Jackson, writer of “The Lottery”, both reiterate the idea that a democratic government can be very dangerous if wrong propositions are voted upon by a public. Likewise in both stories, wrong decisions are made by society, and bring conflict and chaos to a village. People are put in a life or death scenario, and little or nothing could be done because society chose to believe that doing wrong was justified morally.