Science Fiction and Our Culture

In English class, we are currently learning about science fiction. We have read "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. While they have very many contrasts in storyline and setting, they both made me realize small things about our culture (in Indonesia).

To start, "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury is about a group of school children in Venus who bully a girl that is looking forward to the sun's arrival after seven years of rain. The girl, Margot, is always being bullied and ends up being shoved in a closet while the other kids play in the sun. This story made me realize how important it is to understand the perspective and background of people's opinions and not to hate people for it.

On the other hand, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is about a small town in the USA that does yearly lotteries (stoning people to death). This story really made me realize that the culture in different areas in Indonesia could be very different than the culture in Jakarta. It also made me feel almost pitiful to the people who have been stoned or people who 'won the lottery' as it isn't fair; they were just killing people off for the sake of their beliefs, even though it was slightly disturbing. While discussing the story, I wondered if anyone would've actually helped the person who was being stoned to death and whether or not they thought it was right to help people from those situations.

Overall, these two stories have made me realize many things regarding culture, perspective, and beliefs. Although these realizations haven't wholly changed my perspective on most things, it is still nice to know as understand.

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