Author: Evan

Roald Dahl’s short story landlady, is about a young business man named Bill Weaver on a work trip. He goes to a hotel which is run by an old lady. Bill Weaver realizes that he is the only person to come to this hotel in 2 or 3 years. When confronted with this information the story becomes dark since he realizes that he was in danger.

Roald Dahl uses foreshadowing to makes us slowly realize that the woman may have killed the other two people that had visited her hotel. though the young man doesn’t realize much even when he tasted bitter stuff in his tea, or saw that no one besides him and two others have been to this hotel. the author foreshadows with the owner rushing to the door and being completely prepared for him. He then realizes that only him and two others have been there. Bill slowly realizes that the hotel has something wrong with it but doesn’t think that he is in danger.

In conclusion Roald Dahl uses foreshadowing to show that the hotel is weird and dangerous. He uses lots of different things that happen to show that the hotel was dangerous.

In the short story 7th grade, we follow Victor during the school day where we see him talk to his desperate friend Michael and his longing to talk to his crush Teresa. In the end he ends up impressing his crush by pretending to be able to speak french and thankfully his teacher doesn’t expose his inability to speak french.

Now I will be talking about the reason why his teacher didn’t expose him when he pretended to speak French. His teacher didn’t expose him because he was empathetic towards him. He also says “He remembered his college years when he dated a girlfriend in borrowed cars.” which means that he was trying to pretend that he was rich.

Victor pretending to be able to speak french actually turned out to be a good thing since Teresa asks him to help her study for French. Victor’s teacher feeling empathetic towards him causes Victor’s crush to talk to him.

What is culture? well culture according to google is “the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.” Different places have different cultures and both China and America both have different cultures. Waverly’s mom thinks that Chinese culture is better than american culture which is stated by her “Chinese people.do many things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.”(2). This proves that she thinks that Chinese culture is better.

Waverly’s mom comes from Chinese culture which centers around family and that if one person becomes successful than everyone in the family especially the parents have something to do with that persons success.

Waverly herself is starting to adapt to american culture. This is hinted at when she says

I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, “Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?”(5). This is when she doesn’t want to show off and thinks that she is the only reason for success which is part of american culture.

In conclusion rules of the game goes into culture from america and china while comparing them.

To have a moral compass is t have a basic set of rules that has basically been hammered into us since we were children. For example let’s say that robbery was happening every day and everyone was used to it, then you wouldn’t think that it was so bad and having no robberies would be a bit weird. Everyone has a different moral compass but everyone has the no killing no stealing stuff in their compass.

About the story the misfit is a murderer and robber who says that he has no moral compass. Without a moral compass the misfit only kills and steals because he feels like it and wants to.

Another person in the story is the grandmother whose moral compass is a bit old timely and she was a bit racist but she had the no murder and no stealing like everyone else. Unlike the grandmother the misfit is okay e\with everyone.

Morals are different for everyone but most people have the basic morals down which is why our world doesn’t normalize stealing and murder.

During the short story The Ransom of Red Chief, two people decide to kidnap the child of an important figure in a town called Summit. This is the first ironic thing in the story since Summit is actually a completely flat town in the middle of Alabama. The two people then bring the child to their base and the child doesn’t want to leave since the kidnappers would play with the child, which is another ironic part of the story. They end up being abused by this child and the kidnappers become the victim by their victim which is also ironic. Though one of the kidnappers is abused especially harshly by the child and is almost scalped by the child. They then want to return the child as soon as possible to the father and actually end up having to pay the father of the child just to get rid of him.

In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson writes about a town that holds an annual lottery. The person that wins the lottery is stoned to death by the townsfolk. This practice reflects on many different historical events and happenings such as people being lynched, the Salem Witch trials, and World War 1. The Lottery reflects this because The lottery also kills people at random for no reason at all. Shirley Jackson most likely drew some inspiration for this short story from these events. I think that she drew her inspiration from the lynchings especially since that was happening around her time. Overall the lottery has a lot of references and draws a lot of its ideas from many events in history.