March 20th Class Happenings

Hey guys, it's Jasmine.
Today in class, we got our source cards back. Mr. Lazarow told us that it's perfectly okay to type up our index cards, especially if we have extremely horrendous handwriting.

Apart from that (and freaking out about the bio test), today was an interesting class period as usual. We discussed "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, which we read in our Lit for Comp books. Mr. Lazarow asked us a couple of questions: why do you think that this short story is in the "American Dreams and Nightmares" section of the book? The short story ends with a woman being stoned to death--which doesn't often happen in America. Ben said that maybe Shirley Jackson was trying to show that some people are more prone to misfortune, merely by chance.

I talked about how maybe Shirley Jackson was trying to showcase America's problems--Americans sometimes adhere too much to tradition. We hail ourselves as a modern society, but we get stuck in the past by refusing to change our traditions. Paige talked about Christmas--the holiday has lost a lot of its religious meaning. Even atheists celebrate it nowadays. Ben said the same thing about Hannukah. He said that celebrating Hannukah in his house is just going through the motions, so it seems awkward. Amy gave more examples: the Pledge of Allegiance and communion at Church. Deirdre brought up Hayakawa, saying that rituals are a type of social cohesion. We finished by talking about Chinese New Year (the dilution of tradition with each generation) and the seven fish that we're supposed to eat during the holidays. Donna thought that we pick and choose which traditions we want to follow, and usually choose the easiest route.

Have a great spring break (working on your fun research and projects, of course)! I hope you stopped by Rita's today :)

P.S. Do you think language is considered a tradition? I talked today about how the meaning of Chinese New Year is diluted from generation to generation. I think the same applies to language. I'm the first generation in my family to be born and raised in the United States, and already, I hardly ever speak Chinese. Is language a tradition that is easy to let go of? If so, why do we let go of language so easily while refusing to budge from other traditions?