Can our relationships with others define who we are? | conclude that our relationships with others can mold and portray who we are as individual beings. In this essay, I will use my personal experiences to explain the effects that words, actions and perceptions in our relationships with others shape who we are, while comparing and contrasting my life with the following stories. One of these stories is called “The Lottery” which is about a village where they perform extremely outdated and unethical traditions where whoever wins ‘the lottery’ will be stoned to death.
Everybody has to participate and it is such an old tradition that bystanders have accepted the culture so deeply into their lives that they will not object or act against ‘the lottery’. The next story we will compare and contrast to my life is “What, of this Goldfish Would You Wish? ” where a young man seeking fame and fortune through his cinematic talents goes around people’s homes asking them, what they would wish from a goldfish if it would grant them 3 wishes. Unfortunately, this fellow chooses to ask his question at the wrong house which leads to him consequently ending up dead because of a misunderstanding.
Last but not least the final story we will discuss is the poem “Without Title” a story about a girl who describes her life involving her parents bickering and her father’s lost native american tradition. Throughout the poem she referred to a red buffalo which may symbolise her father’s former culture and spirit. The first story we will discuss is “The Lottery”. In this story there is a small town where people gather around annually to play the lottery. The children play in the beginning of the story around rocks which we later learn they will use to stone people to death.
All awhile the men hang out and the women catch up on gossip. It is mentioned that the lottery has been a tradition for a very long time. For example, the box that is used for the slips of paper is described as battered and old from being used for such a long time. Eventually all of the people gather around with their families and started performing the lottery. They play by having the head of every family, usually the man of the house pull a slip of paper from a box and if you get a slip with a black dot on it your family is chosen.
Next, every member of the family has to get a slip of paper from the box and which ever one person gets the marked paper is chosen as “the winner of the lottery’. If you are the winner then that means you are doomed to being stoned to death by everyone else. In part of the story two characters talk about how other towns have gotten rid of the lottery, one character gets very angered by this and starts talking about how you shouldn’t mess with tradition. I found it odd when in this story the mother of a family “Tessie” was the winner but her family didn’t seem to be negatively affected.
As for everyone else in the village, they did not show any emotion of compassion or sympathy for her. It was as if everyone had already taken the mindset that it was better her than them and that the lottery wasn’t anything wrong because it has been around for such a long time that it has become the norm. I can relate with this story partially because my parents have followed old traditions from Mexico where a man’s role is to work and a woman’s role is to cook, clean and manage the household. For a majority of my life, my parents have raised my siblings and I with this mindset in place.
I have two brothers and no sisters, therefore I am the only girl of the family except for my mom. Because my mom works I am in charge during every summer to cook, clean the house and manage laundry as well as caring for our pets. I find it unfair that I am the only one who ever helps around the house when my older brother didn’t have to do these things when he was my age and my younger brother doesn’t have to do anything as well even though I started helping around the house from his young age all just because I was born female.
I sometimes argue with my parents about this but they do not understand because this is the way they were raised so now this is the way I will be brought up. Alike in “The Lottery” where bystanders didn’t do anything to help Tessie because they took on the mindset that it’s better for someone else to suffer than them is kind of how my siblings feel. The next story we will examine is ” What, of this Goldfish, Would you Wish? “. Here, a young man came up with the idea of going house to house to ask people what they would wish of a magic goldfish if it would grant them three wishes while recording their responses on camera.
He believed that once he was finished with his project and edited it, he would sell it a bank company or phone company even a new show and would receive a big amount of money and recognition. He arrives at a man’s home to ask this question. The man’s name is Sergei and what the young man doesn’t know is that Sergei actually does have a magic fish that will grants him 3 wishes. The young man uninvited walks into Sergei’s home to record his fish and ask his question. Sergei doesn’t understand very well what the young man is saying because he is speaking a different language and supposes that the fellow just came to steal his fish away from him.
Sergei panics and grabs a man and hits the young man on the back of the head killing him. The magic fish explains what the young man was really there for and offers Sergei to use his last wish on reversing time back to when the young man first knocked on his door. The thing is that once the fish grants the last and final wish, he will be free. So far Sergei has used up 2 of his 3 wishes throughout the years and they were wishes that helped others but never himself. Sergei is lonely and his only friend is the fish so he doesn’t want to use his last wish because then that will mean the the fish will be free and away from Sergei.
Sadly Sergei loves his magic fish as a close friend and does not want to lose him but in the end he uses up his last wish to save the young man’s life. I can relate with this story when I sometimes put others over myself. For example, just today! went to Walmart with my friend to buy a makeup product I had been saving up my lunch money for. A man approached me and my friend right in front of the entrance and told us that he had just come from Mexico and he needed money for food. The man seemed honest enough so I decided to give him $5. I had decided that the man needed five dollars more than I did which was okay with me.
In the past, I have sometimes offered to help friend with things they needed help with. At one point a friend of mine needed help for a student council essay paper, I helped her and because of the paper when someone else dropped their position she got it because they said her paper was the best one they received. This happened last year and later in the year I had decided that I wanted to get involved with student council as well so I ran. My friend who got into student council because of my help didn’t want me to do student council because it was “her thing” so in the end we ran against each other and she won.
I recognize that if I never had helped her|| could have been in student council and that is something I well regret for the rest of my life just like how Sergei regretted what he spent his second wish on. The next story we will compare and contrast with my life is the poem “Without Title” in this story a girl describes her life and how her parents often argue with each other. One day her father brought home horns and hides and she witnessed her father being ‘shot down’ by her mother when her mother told her father to get rid of them.
She also mentions how that night she slept hearing the snores of a red buffalo which can represent her father losing his connection with his former Native American tradition. I can relate with this story only a small bit where her parents argue at times. Sometimes my parents argue but it has never gotten to the point of a divorce or an argument lasting longer than 2 hours. I guess I can relate with how she could hear her father’s snoring at night becuase sometimes by dad snores like crazy and instead of referring to himself as a buffalo he sometimes jokes around calling himself “EL GALLO”.