The Lottery
This central theme is shown when the villagers go along with a terrible tradition just because "everyone else is doing it."
What is peer pressure? (Accept: blind conformity).
Seymour Glass feeling completely alone while surrounded by rich people at a resort highlights this theme of emotional isolation.
What is loneliness? (Accept: being an outsider).
Time Safari, Inc. selling dangerous time-travel trips for huge profits critiques businesses that try to turn this into a product.
What is nature?
Jerry's scary swim through the underwater tunnel is a classic literary symbol for this journey every teenager goes through.
What is growing up? (Accept: a rite of passage).
In Robert Frost's poem, the element of "fire" is used as a powerful symbol for this burning, passionate human emotion.
What is desire? (Accept: passion or greed).
The story shows that regular people can do evil things if their community treats it as normal, a theme often called this "duality" of people.
What is the dark side of human nature?
The fictional bananafish, who swim into holes and eat until they die, are a warning about this human vice of wanting too much "stuff."
What is greed? (Accept: materialism).
Eckels' panic when he sees the T-Rex shows how human pride is crushed when we realize we cannot actually control this force.
What is Mother Nature? (Accept: wild animals).
Jerry keeping his success a secret at the end shows that true maturity is about achieving goals for yourself, not for this reason.
What is showing off? (Accept: seeking approval from others).
Dylan Thomas telling his dying father to "rage against the dying of the light" emphasizes the theme of fighting hard to preserve this.
What is life? (Accept: the will to live).
By showing how fast the town turns on Tessie once she is chosen, the story explores how fragile these friendly relationships really are.
What is neighborhood/community loyalty?
Seymour's happiness when talking to little Sybil shows the author's focus on this pure quality, which adults tend to lose.
What is childhood innocence?
The idea that stepping on one butterfly in the past can accidentally create a future dictator is known as this scientific concept.
What is the Butterfly Effect?
The physical toll on Jerry's body, including painful nosebleeds, highlights that overcoming your fears requires this trait.
What is determination? (Accept: perseverance or hard work).
In "Fire and Ice," the coldness of ice is used to represent this silent, chilling human emotion that can destroy the world.
What is hate?
Old Man Warner warning that giving up the lottery will make them starve shows how people use this to justify hurting others.
What is superstition? (Accept: fear of change).
The story deals heavily with mental health by showing how hard it was for soldiers returning from war to deal with this type of trauma.
What is the invisible damage of war? (Accept: PTSD).
The fact that the future changes from a free democracy to a scary dictatorship warns readers about how fragile this system of freedom is.
What is government/democracy?
Jerry's struggle to fit in with the older French boys on the rocks explores the painful teenage feeling of this.
What is rejection? (Accept: isolation or loneliness).
Both poems strongly reject this lazy attitude, urging readers to care deeply about life instead of just drifting along quietly
What is giving up? (Accept: quitting or complacency).
The story acts as a mid-century critique of this specific American cultural pressure, where standing out or questioning rules was dangerous.
What is Cold War conformity or McCarthyism?
Seymour’s tragic ending shows the dangerous clash between a sensitive person and a shallow society that only cares about looks and money. (Failure to understand...)
What is the failure to understand mental illness?
Written right after WWII, the story's warning about a tiny action causing total destruction mirrors the real-world anxiety about this technology.
What is nuclear weapons?
The story looks at family dynamics by balancing a teenager's need for independence against this type of motherly behavior.
What is being overprotective?
Frost's poem operates on a global scale, warning that these types of personal human emotions have the power to destroy all of civilization.
What are negative/destructive emotions?