The Lottery: Free choice, self knowledge and Guilt

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Finding Yourself through the Pain

Based on the Novel: The Lottery By: Beth Goobie

Student: Monique Roopanram

Teacher: Ms. Kirshenblat

Course: ENG1D5-04

Date: Friday, June 8, 2007

        There are many instances in our lives which prompt us to ask ourselves the questions: “Who am I?”, “What am I doing here?”, “Does anyone know I exist?”, “Does anybody care about me?”, “Why am I doing this?”, and “What was I thinking?”.  Life is full of opportunities to achieve excellence or failure.  Some of us choose excellence, some choose failure, and some are not given a choice.  In the novel The Lottery, Sal Hanson is chosen as the year’s lottery winner at her school Saskatoon Collegiate (S.C.).  This role enables the Shadow Council to take advantage of her by making her do their “dirty work”.  Not only is the role of the lottery winner demeaning, but it also takes Sal on a journey where she learns free choice, self-knowledge, and guilt.

         Having free choice is essential for individuals in order to define what kind of person they are, and who they aspire to be.  After Sal Hanson is chosen as the lottery winner, the luxury of free choice is taken from her.  The Shadow Council has control over Sal's choices that, now, consist of following Shadow Council’s orders to a tee or suffering the consequence of receiving demerits.  “She felt the leash around her throat, tightening like the silence in the room” (47) is how Sal feels after her first encounter with Shadow Council.  Not only does Sal suffer from a loss of free choice, but her peers do as well.  This is especially seen through the character change of her best friends, Brydan and Kimmie, as they feel obligated to follow the ways of Shadow Council and shun the lottery winner.  Sal recognizes this as she walks through the halls and realizes her friends are

…the worst, their eyes glazing with dread whenever they accidentally bumped into her.  Brydan had it easiest – he simply ducked his head and treaded her as part of his regular hallway obstacle course – but the rest of her friends were eye level and had to keep inventing a sudden interest in their watches or turning in the opposite direction (70).

Sal tries to convince herself that she doesn’t care about this dramatic change, but she fails as she concludes “but the fact was she did care, and it was the small ridiculous things she cared about” (72).  It would seem that what Sal misses the most are the little things.  This is a great example of how our lives are made up of an immense amount of little things that are all combined together to form what we know as ‘us’.  Without the free choice to keep or remove these things from our lives, our lives are tremendously impacted.  In her performance of Willis Cass’ composition, “Inside the Question”, Sal feels something deep within her and reflects on how certain people around her deal with the sorrow of losing their free choice as well.

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Closing her eyes, Sal sent herself wishing into sound and it became the song of her father she was playing, thinking of Chris Busatto, Tauni Morrison, Diane Kruisselbrink, and Jenny Weaver – all those who couldn’t find the mouth in their face yet would not be silenced.  She played on, their voices rising through her, demanding an existence that was free of the hawk soaring above, and more than a low-level reflection.  The music lifted through her, taking the shape of their faces – Diane Kruisselbrink, arms lifted for a mighty shove; Jenny Weaver’s eyes darting here, there and everywhere, ...

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This is an excellent essay that follows its theme closely. Points made are skilfully supported, using well-chosen quotations, though some of these are too long. A little paraphrasing and shorter quotations would be an improvement. There are a few errors of usage, eg: "apart" instead of "a part" and some superfluous or wrongly used prepositions, but these do not detract from the excellence of the argument and general style of this essay. 5 stars