The Lottery
This elderly character strongly defends the Lottery and criticises villages that have abandoned it. Representing a socity stuck in its ways for better or worse.
Who is Old Man Warner?
This celebration opens the story.
What is the Festival of Summer?
This philosophy argues that society is shaped by class struggle between the wealthy and the working class.
What is Marxism?
Marxism: This concept describes how workers become disconnected from their labour, its products and their sense of purpose.
What is Alienation?
This country invented the sport of basketball.
What is USA
This major theme explores how people unquestioningly follow traditions, even when those traditions are harmful.
What is blind conformity?
Those who leave Omelas reject this moral philosophy.
What is utilitarianism?
Bong Joon-ho uses this film technique to contrast the homes of the rich and poor.
What is Juxtaposition?
Feminism: This concept describes how women are portrayed primarily as objects of heterosexual male desire.
What is the male gaze?
This planet is famous for its enormous rings made of ice and rock.
What is Saturn?
Shirley Jackson uses this literary technique by presenting the Lottery as an ordinary, cheerful community event before revealing its disturbing reality.
What is irony?
Omelas represents a society whose happiness depends on the suffering of others, making the story an example of this literary technique.
What is allegory?
The repeated use of stairs symbolises this social issue.
What is class hierarchy?
Postcolonialism: This concept describes how colonisers portray Indigenous peoples as inferior, exotic or fundamentally different.
What is othering?
This is the only continent without native land snakes.
What is Antarctica?
The villagers have forgotten much of the original ritual but continue the Lottery anyway. This reveals the dangers of following traditions without understanding their purpose.
What is Blind Conformity
Unlike utilitarianism, this philosophy argues that harming an innocent child is wrong, regardless of how many people benefit.
What is deontology?
Through Ki-woo's unrealistic dream of buying the Park house, Bong warns audiences about this.
What is false mobility?
Women experience inequality differently depending on their identities.
What is intersectionality?
This popular video game features characters called M Bison, E Honda and Zangief.
What is Street Fighter?
Tessie Hutchinson only protests the Lottery after her own family is selected. Her reaction highlights this contradiction in human behaviour.
What is hypocrisy or selective morality?
Those who walk away reject the city's injustice but do not rescue the child, raising this ethical question.
What is the difference between refusing to accept injustice and actively challenging it?
By portraying the wealthy as largely unaware of their privilege and the poor as competing for survival, Bong Joon-ho warns that capitalism maintains inequality through this ideological mechanism.
What is the normalisation of class inequality, where systemic exploitation is accepted as a natural part of society?
Realism: This international relations theory argues that nations prioritise power, security and self-interest because no higher authority can guarantee their protection.
What is political realism?
This country has more pyramids than Egypt.
What is Sudan?