Y9: Dystopian Short Stories 3 (Week 5)

Hello Year 9!

 

I hope you enjoyed the short stories from last week. If you didn’t do the dystopia quiz last week, you can find it here. If you did, have a go at this more challenging, updated quiz.

This week, we’re going to look at one more famous short story: Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. This story is not set in the future, but in an alternative version of the past/present. It’s famous for its slow, tense build-up and shocking ending.

Here are your tasks for the last week of this half-term (when did that happen?!):

1) Read this introductory information about the story:

• It was written in 1948
• It was published in The New Yorker magazine
• Readers at the time were shocked and angered.
• Many subscribers to The New Yorker cancelled their subscriptions in protest.
• Shirley Jackson received hate mail for months.
• The story was banned in South Africa.
• It is now considered a classic, is taught in American schools and has been described as 'one of the most famous short stories in American Literature.
• Jackson recalled the hate mail she received in 1948:

One of the most terrifying aspects of publishing stories and books is the

realization that they are going to be read, and read by strangers. I had

never fully realized this before, although I had of course in my

imagination dwelt lovingly upon the thought of the millions and millions

of people who were going to be uplifted and enriched and delighted by the

stories I wrote. It had simply never occurred to me that these millions and

millions of people might be so far from being uplifted that they would sit

down and write me letters I was downright scared to open; of the three-

hundred-odd letters that I received that summer I can count only thirteen

that spoke kindly to me, and they were mostly from friends. Even my

mother scolded me: "Dad and I did not care at all for your story in The

New Yorker," she wrote sternly; "it does seem, dear, that this gloomy kind

of story is what all you young people think about these days. Why don't

you write something to cheer people up?"

Curiously, there are three main themes which dominate the letters of that first summer—three themes which might be identified as bewilderment, speculation and plain old-fashioned abuse. In the years since then, during which the story has been anthologized, dramatized, televised, and even—in one completely mystifying transformation—made into a ballet, the tenor of letters I receive has changed. I am addressed more politely, as a rule, and the letters largely confine themselves to questions like what does this story mean? The general tone of the early letters, however, was a kind of wide-eyed, shocked innocence. People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant; what they wanted to know was where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch.

2) Read the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. Download here or read below. You can listen along to this audio recording too, if you like.

3) Use the questioning grid below to come up with a few questions about the story.

E.g.  What are you left wondering at the end? What don’t you understand? 

4) Write a letter to Shirley Jackson. Include:

• your reactions to the story
• your views about what it is about - think about dystopian themes, relevance to the modern world etc.
• your questions about it (see task 3)

You can use this writing frame to help you:

5) Watch the short film. (YouTube – 18 mins)

The film can also be watched at the top of this article (with a clearer picture).

6) Consider some interpretations of the meaning of the story:

• Watch this explanation on YouTube
• Have a look at this list of some possible meanings of the story:

Optional extras:

Extra question:

To what extent is this a dystopian story? What is dystopian about it? How is it similar/different to other dystopias you’ve read/seen?

Extra task:

Watch this music video for Radiohead’s song, Burn the Witch. What similarities can you find between the story and the song? Do they have the same theme?

Dig deeper:

Find out more about Shirley Jackson here.

Find out more about the reaction to The Lottery here.

That’s it for this week. What did you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

After half-term, we’ll get started on reading a great dystopian novel, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Until then… stay safe and take care.

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT