Alternate Ending to "The Lottery"

Bill Hutchinson and his wife were the last two people to open their slips of paper. As all the village people's eyes were on the two of them, Bill Hutchinson opened up his slip of paper first, revealing a blank sheet to Tessie Hutchinson. With fear coursing through her body, Tessie Hutchinson took a deep breath and slowly opened the slip, her eye catching sight of part of a dark circle marked by the coal. Knowing her impending future, Tessie Hutchinson took a look around at everyone impatiently waiting to do what they all did every year. Finding the pile of stones that the kids had made before the lottery began, Tessie Hutchinson ran, immediately followed by a mob of villagers carrying stones and chasing after her. After running for what felt like an hour, Mrs. Hutchinson found herself in the middle of the forest, caught up by Old Man Warner, Mr. Summers, Mrs. Dunbar and other men, women, and children each carrying their own stones. Mrs. Hutchinson cried out "It isn't fair, it isn't right" as she got hit by several stones and only darkness remained. 

I chose this alternative ending because I like how it shows some element of fighting back on Tessie's part. When I first read this story, it was somewhat shocking how the plot shifted from a seemingly normal beginning to an end where a village throws stones at one of its people based on random chance. While it was an interesting story, I wasn't too content with the ending, especially in the way that everyone suddenly turned on Tessie Hutchinson and stoned her with no hesitation. While my alternative ending doesn't show the other village people showing remorse (because it seems uncharacteristic of the story's nature), I do like that it shows Tessie's initial resistance of the lottery's deathly consequence. 

Another Title for "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona"

"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie was an interesting story to read. The plot was interesting, especially with the author's choice to add flashback moments throughout the story that help explain the current narrative setting and relationship between the main characters. Although the entirety of the story is based on Victor and Thomas traveling to Phoenix to pick up Victor's ashes following his death, I never felt like Phoenix was actually important enough to be the title of the story. Rather, I think the small details characterizing Victor and Thomas' past and present friendship and the story of their relationship over time is the most significant aspect of this story.

After reading the entire story, another title that I came up with for this story is "To Tell A Thousand Stories". In my opinion, a recurring theme in this story is Thomas's connection with stories and what they mean to him. Each story that Thomas tells holds a special place in his heart because it represents something for him. His "dreams" also serve as these stories because he hopes to relay these dreams to anyone and everyone willing to listen. Even though these stories seem only significantly connected to Thomas and Victor is still a main character, I think there is still a connection between these stories and Victor because the flashback stories are about both Victor and Thomas and all Thomas desires is for Victor to listen to Thomas' stories.

That said, even though it seems as if Victor should be the main focus of this story, I actually think the title should reflect Thomas more because we learn more about his character and personality through the flashbacks and stories. There is also some component of sympathy towards Thomas as we are told that he gets beaten as a kid and doesn't have any friends because no one wants to hear his stories. Because of this, I felt for Thomas throughout the entire story, which is why I feel that a more fitting title would be "To Tell A Thousand Stories".

"The Machine Stops" In the Present

"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster details a society characterized by complete social isolation where everyone lives underground and members are expected to follow certain rules/expectations. When we first read this short story in class, I had appreciated the creativity of the story's premise but also found the story to be highly unrealistic and impractical. That said, I was also intrigued by the blend of familiarity there was, such as how personal, face-to-face interaction was replaced by communication via video screens, which is parallel to us Facetiming or Skyping friends and acquaintances. Meanwhile, as each day passes during this COVID-19 outbreak, it seems as if our society is quickly slipping into one similar to that of "The Machine Stops."

One component of the story that particularly stood out to me was how people were essentially not allowed to have physical contact with each other. This seemed like such a bizarre aspect of the society because I never believed that an increased use in technology would completely eliminate personal interaction. However, the current climate due to COVID-19 has essentially caused this social isolation seen in "The Machine Stops" where everyone is "forced" to practice social distancing. The difference in our case is that there aren't a set of laws that punish people who don't practice this act, but rather they just get reprimanded or strongly advised by fellow community members to follow this act.

This mantra of "6 feet apart" has infiltrated our daily lives to an enormous degree because it is dictating the way we live our lives to almost every single detail. With our current living situations in mind, it changes the way I read "The Machine Stops," having more sympathy and curiosity for the characters who suffer through similar situations as us right now. Previously, I hadn't made much of the fact that all people are allowed to do to communicate is talk through technology but now that I am faced with the same situation, I find it incomprehensible how the characters in the story are able to thrive or even survive in that atmosphere. Overall, our society's current predicament has definitely altered my perception of "The Machine Stops".

Ethnic Conflict in My Parents' Bedroom

"If we kill your wife for you," the Wizard says, "we must kill you. And your children, too." He thuds his stick. "Otherwise, after cleansing our land of Tutsi nuisance, your children will come after us. We must remain one. Nothing shall dilute our blood. Not God. Not marriage." (Akpan, 24)

When we were asked towards the end of our class discussion to pinpoint a section of "My Parents' Bedroom" that depicts the tension in the story, I immediately thought of this quote. Although there were subtle clues throughout the story to help explain why there was tension between the narrator's family and the general population (plus the narrator's extended family), I hadn't truly gained a complete understanding until this part of the story, where Akpan explicitly stated the motivation behind the town's hostility towards the narrator's parents. I felt that this paragraph, though small, was crucial to understanding the story because it put all the earlier and violent actions in perspective to the readers.

Although the battle in this story is between two ethnic groups, essentially showing what the Rwandan Genocide was like for families of Tutsi's, I found myself repeatedly drawing comparisons between what was going on in the story and the history of racial conflict between Blacks and Whites in the United States. The last part of this quote where the Wizard states "Nothing shall dilute our blood. Not God. Nor marriage" reminded me of miscegenation. According to Merriam-Webster, miscegenation is defined as: "marriage, cohabitation, or sexual intercourse between a white person and a member of another race." Miscegenation, a prominent theme of racial supremacist movements, was quite frowned upon and was often associated with negative connotations. Those against miscegenation believed that the mixing of races negatively impacted the purity of the white race and culture. The Wizard saying "nothing shall dilute our blood" reminded me of this ideology that mixing races, or in this case ethnic groups, where one is viewed as superior to another results in the belief that the superior race/ethnic group has become damaged and impure.

I think that the most important words in this quote within the context of the entire story are "cleansing", "blood", and "marriage." I believe that these three words effectively summarize the problem that is built up throughout the entire story and explain why the town's solution is violence and murder. The deliberate choice to use the world cleansing implies that the Hutus believe there is something impure and dirty about the existence of the Tutsis and that it is almost essential to get rid of them in order to preserve the virtue of the Hutus. The significance of using the word blood follows the idea of miscegenation where the Hutus in the story live by the belief that Hutus and Tutsis should not be associated with each other because it ruins the sanctity of the Hutus. By using the word "blood," Akpan takes a literal approach to this belief, showing how the Hutus believe they would physically be ruined by having relations with Tutsis.

Finally, the last sentence of the paragraph where the Wizard says "Not marriage" shows that love and loyalty are strictly confined within the same ethnic group. Today, there is a saying of "It's not blood that makes you family. It's love." The conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis, however, counters this ideology and instead shows that one can really only love someone who shares the same "ethnic blood" as them because otherwise the love is tainted. Akpan's style in writing the sentences in this paragraph as extremely terse and abrupt adds a lot more emphasis to their purpose. The town believes so strongly that Tutsis ruin Hutus that they are even willing to go outside the boundaries and kill a Hutu member as well, just as long as the goal of killing a Tutsi person is accomplished.

This quote is just one of many in this story that shows that blood relations were more important than anything else in this strife between the Hutus and the Tutsis. In general, I really liked this story because, since I hadn't known about the history of the Rwandan Genocide prior to reading this story, there was an element of mystery building up through the story that wasn't "resolved" for me until this point in the story.

Critique of the Post-Apocalyptic Genre

What does the Post-Apocalyptic genre offer regarding the future of the human race?

In "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury, technology dominates and essentially becomes the only "living" thing remaining. Contrary to how society currently views and associates with technology, the power dynamic between humans and technology in this short story is reversed, where technology worships humans and is not that intelligent because it is unable to detect that there are no longer humans living in the house. The major similarity, though, is the purpose of the technology and how it is designed to make the lives of the people easier. This is reasonable because technology should logically only make our lives easier as time goes on.

Another aspect of Bradbury's depiction of technology worth noting is how technology repeatedly defeats nature. Throughout the novel, the house uses its beneficial technologies for self-preservation against nature, such as keeping the bird out and killing the dog. Bradbury makes the technology out to be almost a force of evil that can't be reckoned with. I don't quite agree with this illustration because no matter how amazing and sufficient technology may seem, it is man-made and I feel like the natural order of the world will always triumph.     

"Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler portrays another aspect of this argument that still centers on the idea that the demise and destruction of humans is inevitable. Although there isn't a direct relationship between technology and the state of the human race during which the story takes place, the lack of humanity in this society is still due to a man-made disaster that wipes out all of the unique traits that define us as humans and individuals. Through this short story, Butler makes a point of showing how losing key characteristics that make us human like communication will result in violence and mutual destruction.

The post-apocalyptic genre focuses on narrating societies where humanity is either wiped out or severely impaired and modified, predominantly due to man-made causes. From both of these stories, the overarching idea is essentially that there is no hope for humans in the future because our desire (and possible greed) to experiment and develop new products in the hopes of making society better and life easier will be the ultimate cause of our downfall.