Friday, January 29, 2010

The Black Spot

I would call this story "The Black Box" because the black box is the main subject of this story and it also creates tension and curiosity on what is in the black box. In the story, there were a lot of foreshadowing that helped me predict what was going to happen. When Mrs.Hutchinson shouted "It wasn't fair!", I noticed that she wasn't happy at all when her family was selected in the lottery. This infers that the lottery in the story is not same as the lottery nowadays. The people don't want to be chosen for the lottery. Also from this text "it was no longer completely black but splintered baldy along on side to show original wood color.", I realised that the black box was antique and I knew that the lottery was a ritual from a long time ago.

These foreshadowing and questions that are popping in my head pulled me into the story. I couldn't wait to read the last paragraph. Instead of lines and words in the last paragraph, I saw a BLANK space. As a result, more questions appeared and created great tension. The second when Ms.P ripped the paper that had the end of story, The power of the void exploded and I thought I was going to die! There were so many clues in the story about the black box but there weren't any accurate answer. Then A paper that said "Do not open until 5pm and follow the instructions" Some papers had a black dot on it but mine didn't. I was kind of disappointed because people around me had the black dot and I thought something more special was on the paper.I did follow the instructions, I opened the paper at exactly 5pm because I was very curious about this mysterious paper and there was a SURPRISE! There was the ENDING OF STORY and some questions to answer for this blog. Obviously I did follow the instruction by writing this blog post.

The black box, the black spot and the blank paper...The black box is somehow the main object of this story and this caused the most tension for me. What was this box? What is in there? What makes people so curious about this box? Why do they want to change this box but they never do? These countless questions were suffering in my head until I received the rest of the story. The black spot is the climax of the story. Whoever gets the black spot is chosen. One thing that made me so anxious is that people didn't want to be the chosen one. I thought people want to be chosen for something good like the lottery. The blank paper is something that made people feel comfortable and happy. The people didn't want to be chosen. The blank paper was more like a winner in the lottery. more than 300 winners and 1 loser.

4:58pm, COME ON! (Peeking into the paper) For me, it felt like more than an hour passed to reach 4:59pm. Any faster? The second when the the big needle pointed at 12 and small needle turned to 5, I ripped two staplers on the paper and read "THE ENDING OF STORY" I knew it! Somehow I knew that I will find out the ending of the story. If there wasn't the ending of story, I would still go and ask teachers for the ending. I wasn't really focusing on the "assignment part", I could still make questions and predictions in the end of story. The time when the answer was given, I felt as if i was in heaven where I saw and knew everything. My prediction was the chosen one was going to be killed. It was kind of right because they threw stones at Tessie which is basically killing her. If I related more clues and forshadow in the story to make predictions, I'm sure I could make a better one. The auther left these voids in the story because the readers want to think and make predictions and questions. Also, it's boring when the author gives away every details.

No title, The title is suppose to give ideas to readers about the story. My first huge tension was created when I saw blank space in the title page. No ending, It's good to think and make predictions but there was nothing! Though people enjoy predicting, they still want to know the answer. Text clues, they were my heroes, they gave me ideas about this story and led me into the rest of the story. Mystery paper and delayed ending, The silence for 3 hours, I wasn't suppose to open this paper. What is this? The silence, the time when question ghosts flies in my head and the power of void ruled the entire band class students. From this short story, I realised that void can be created from anywhere, and wherever it happens, the power of void will rule the entire space...


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