The Management of Grief & the Lottery

In what ways can we identify with the characters in each story? How does the point of view impact the way we relate to the characters?

The Management of Grief:

For anyone who has ever lost something, or someone, whether it be a friend, a relative, a favorite hat, whatever, knows about the longing that is felt to have that person/item back in your possession, even if just for one more second. We relate to the characters in this story because, even if we haven't lost someone we love, we have all lost something we love, and we know what's it's like to want it back. The levels of longing maybe be a little varied, but loss is loss.

Having the story told through Mrs. Bhave's eyes, in my opinion, doesn't really bring out the story's full potential. But perhaps that's the way the author wanted it. Since Mrs. Bhava doesn't completely come to terms with families deaths for a while, it makes the reader think about how they would handle that situation if it were them. I agree with the girl in class today that said, I find myself just reading the story and not really trying to understand it, which is exactly how I read it. My input on this story may be a little off since I couldn't really get into it.

The Lottery:

I didn't really relate to any of the characters in this story, simply because we never find out a whole lot about any of them. I understood the characters and why each one was created for the story, but didn't really see myself in any of them.

I think the reason this story has had such "staying power" over the years, is because it's told from an outside voice, someone not a member of the village. If the story had been told by an insider the ending would have been given away in the very beginning, because surely they would have thought about their name being picked and having to die, right?

As a side note, this story reminds me of the movie Hot Fuzz! Great film.

Peace.