This summer I couldn’t do much because of the pandemic. However, I did spend a lot of time with my family. I did a lot of home activities such as movie night, paint night, and even bought a pool.  But one thing I did that made me feel good was camping. Camping was out of my comfort zone since I don’t particularly like bugs or insects, but overall, I had fun and the view was beautiful. There was a river where fishes would swim, numerous trees, and an aesthetic sky that filled with stars at night. It felt good to get out of the house and have different scenery. Even though there were huge mosquitoes and a mama bear around the campsite, I would go again.  

Out of the three stories I read, I liked “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The reason why I picked this story to be my favorite is that it took me off guard when the winner of the lottery was being a human sacrifice. To me what I found spooky in the story was how okay everyone was with committing this violent act yearly. The way the story started off was with a sense of normality to then end in tragedy. While reading this story I felt like the narrator was giving us a lot of information that she wasn’t saying, but was clear for the reader to get on their own. I noticed how gender played a role, such as men working and picking from the box while women cook and clean. There is a type of conflict that is man vs society, so in the end, when Tessie is the one that wins the lottery, everyone in the town picks up rocks and begins to attack her. There is also symbolism present in this story such as the black box. The black box is used every year by the people which can represent tradition. Another reason why I like this story is mainly because of the lesson of the story which is to not do anything blindly because it can end badly, or you could commit a horrible act unknowingly.