English Research Paper Social Change
English 102-15F
25, April 2011
Social Change The idea of social change is something that I would say, deep down, scares us all. When looking at two stories in particular you can see an evolution over the years. Saying this I wonder when you do look very closely at “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell how much you will find alike, but also how much you will find different based on the time period in which they were written. Social Change is not something that’s easy for some people. However, it normally takes place over a time frame of years, therefore making it harder to notice when it is actually taking place. In today’s world, researchers and scientist have even been able to come up with ways in which they believe social change is taking place and can be predicted to an extent. “The Lottery” took place back in 1948, which is when it was written. Needless to say a lot of the social trends and social norms they had back then are not easily compared with the values of today’s society. What we call socially acceptable today is vastly different than what was acceptable in the 40’s. The values of society then were much more conservative. Today if I were to walk in on a social event like the lottery, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I bet I would be the one selected to get stoned on the spot. Those days’s it was only acceptable for men to wear long pants and maybe a t-shirt. As the back ground of “The Lottery” is reveled, you are given more information on the social traditions of their fictional society. It makes you wonder if this is actually something that ever took place in history, or if it was something inspired by the culture of the 1940’s. Today we think of a lottery as being something were you have the chance to win money, but this story shows how different lotteries were then. In this story the author portrays “The Lottery” as an event were the entire village is gathered in the courtyard to draw a piece of paper
25, April 2011
Social Change The idea of social change is something that I would say, deep down, scares us all. When looking at two stories in particular you can see an evolution over the years. Saying this I wonder when you do look very closely at “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell how much you will find alike, but also how much you will find different based on the time period in which they were written. Social Change is not something that’s easy for some people. However, it normally takes place over a time frame of years, therefore making it harder to notice when it is actually taking place. In today’s world, researchers and scientist have even been able to come up with ways in which they believe social change is taking place and can be predicted to an extent. “The Lottery” took place back in 1948, which is when it was written. Needless to say a lot of the social trends and social norms they had back then are not easily compared with the values of today’s society. What we call socially acceptable today is vastly different than what was acceptable in the 40’s. The values of society then were much more conservative. Today if I were to walk in on a social event like the lottery, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I bet I would be the one selected to get stoned on the spot. Those days’s it was only acceptable for men to wear long pants and maybe a t-shirt. As the back ground of “The Lottery” is reveled, you are given more information on the social traditions of their fictional society. It makes you wonder if this is actually something that ever took place in history, or if it was something inspired by the culture of the 1940’s. Today we think of a lottery as being something were you have the chance to win money, but this story shows how different lotteries were then. In this story the author portrays “The Lottery” as an event were the entire village is gathered in the courtyard to draw a piece of paper
Cited: Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Classic Short Stories. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html>. John, Clifford John, New York: Boston, 2005. 439-503. Print. "What Is Social Change?" Fex.org. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.fundforsouth.org/social_change.htm>. "America 's Best History U.S. Timeline, 1940-1949." America 's Best History - Home. Web. 28 Apr "What Is the SCM?" The Social Change Model. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://socialchangemodel.ning.com/page/what-is-the-scm>.