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This story made me consider what unethical things we do in order to prove status or wealth and how many of those things are completely normalised today. It also made me consider how many of these normalised practices seem completely inhumane to other cultures and if these practices will be heavily looked down upon in the near future or implimented even heavier. As an example buying clothing from sources that use unethical or child labor.

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3. The family's status-seeking behaviors are extremely prominent in today's society as well. The main character's family ignores the ethical issues presented by the use of Semplica Girls as a cosmetic accessory due to the impression of wealth that owning SG's comes with the same way people ignore the ethical issues that come with pursuing status symbols such as owning private jets or designer clothing with unethical means of production

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2. The status-seeking behavior that the main character exhibits in the short story would certainly be changed if the societal values were reassessed. In the world the story takes place in the unethical use of SG's is almost entirely normalised in the pursuit of status, so if a family owns SG's they are immediately associated with wealth, luxury, and power, as seen in the scene where the main character's family attends another family's birthday party. If the society the main character's family lives in would place less value on status or wealth and wealth these status seeking behaviors would likely subside as demonstrating status would no longer be a priority

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A recurring behavior in the Semplica Girl Diaries is the desire to prove one's status/fit in. Instead of paying off their credit the main character's family chooses to spend the 10k that they won on their daughter's birthday party; renovating their entire yard and even buying themselves four SG's (four women joint together by a line through their temples used for cosmetic/aesthetic purposes or as a status symbol), influenced by the birthday party they attended hosted by a richer family in the neighborhood

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4. This story really made me think about how far tradition takes us and influences our lives since it's so deeply rooted into our culture.

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3. This reminds me of when women in China were forced to basically bend their feet in half in order to look beautiful and was a horrible social belief which ended in 1912 and started around 1700 BC, this ended because it was cruel and extremely painful and was outlawed after the Nationalist Revolution

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4. My takeaway from the story is that money, wealth, prestige and status are playing a limited role in happiness. While the father is busy in creating a world that reflects the desire to belong to the rich, he oversees that he has a family, a job, and a house - much more than the SG's could ever dream of. Only at the end, he develops some empathy for what the girl's family might have felt, letting their daughter go and become a SG. With more empathy, he would have realized that Lilly maybe needed something different than three expensive birthday presents; his father-in-law might have supported them when they would care more for him and his younger daughter Eva had a reason for her actions. But all that counted was how his family was perceived by the rich.

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3. There are many correlational behaviors that are caused by imitating the behavior of others or getting prestige objects because people want to belong to THIS specific social group, e.g. people belong to "cooler, more educated or more cosmopolitan" group if they own Apple-technology or travel around the world during vacation.

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2. Yes, the behavior of the father would change if the value of a human in a western society would not be connected to money and prestige. The society needs to change in a way that values people not based on their wealth but what they contribute to a society.

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1. The behavior or action of the story that stood out to me was the father's desire to be part of the rich by copying the status symbols of the rich, e.g. an amazing yard with SGs. He explained in his diary for future generations that their daughter Lilly was invited to her friend's house Leslie for a birthday party, describing the richness of this family by using status symbols and prestige "objects" like horses or SGs. The first thing that he did with the money that he had won was to pay for a yard as the rich have it and to "order" SGs. His desire to be part of the rich created this behavior of imitation of prestige objects.

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4: This story made me think about how different our culture may be in the future, as well as what may have caused the change. I wondered why the people were ok with treating the SG like objects, as well as why they are popular.

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1. Behaviour in SG Diaries involved the purchase and use of "Semplica Girls" within society. The environment played a large role in the narrators decision to purchase the SG's as they saw the act performed by their peers as a status of wealth and the narrator wanted to conform to that behaviour.
2. The narrators action could be changed if the values/beliefs of the society he was in changed, as one of the main reasons he decided to purchase the SG's was because he did not see anything negative in the act and his peers even reacted positively to his purchase.
3. There are many behaviours today that are correlated/mirror the purchasing of semplica girls. Not long ago through many countries minorities/ethnicities where either treated as second class citizens, enslaved, or both. some may argue this still happens today. For this behaviour, the environment plays a huge role in the normalization and encourgement to continue this behaviour, much like the use of SG's in the story.
4. I feel like the main focus of the story wasn't the semplica girls themselves, rather the character of the narrator (or lack thereof) He seemed to act in an illogical behaviour that wasn't as much of a result of his own choices, but rather the environment and people around him. The way he treated his children and family where influenced by his past expieriences with his own parents (When he remembered how he wouldn't act towards his kids due to how his mother acted towards hime). The way he justified purchasing Semplica Girls and other unnecessary products when he still had to pay off debt was also due to external factors that weren't his own decisions. He even stated that he knew/had a feeling he shouldn't have done it but couldn't decide not to do it. This is made more apparent by his father-in-law, Rich, who serves as a contrast to the narrator (eg: someone who knows and understands his own feelings and can make decisions for himself). At the end of the story, the Semplica Girls were freed ans chose to run off on their own despite still being bound by the wire, while the narrator himself couldn't comprehend why they would want to do this. At the end of the story, ironically, the semplica girls were free while the narrator was still trapped in a society in which he still didn't even comprehend the idea of free choice, where each decision he made wasn't due to his own free will, rather they were fabricated by the society he was a part in.

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3: I feel that the behavior of changing something about yourself or where you live is very much happening today. People often change themselves to present a version of themself that is more "likable" so that they will fit in.

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2: The action could be changed if the society had not been so upper class. If the family lived in a more middle-class neighborhood, then Lilly wouldn't have made friends with upper-class richer people, and therefore would not have felt so out of place that she felt she needed to change something about her home to fit in.

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4. This story made me consider the importance of material wealth for the majority of the population. People dont seem to invest into useful things and instead want to seem rich by investing into useless material items

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1: The behavior/action of conformity to society can be seen in the story. The enviornment of mostly rich people caused the family to feel inferior, which the family did not want. The other people play the role of re-enforcing the doubts of fitting in by always talking about the nice things that they have, and the nice things that they could get. This eventually causes the family to spend all their lottery money on a nice yard so their daughter will feel she fits in.

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Q1: All residents of the town are acting strange. Most are quiet as if to be worried about something, which shows foreshadowing. The weather is too idyllic which contrasts the somber mood. It is also worthy to mention that only a few people disagreed with the annual lottery, prompting the reader to think that most residents enjoyed the event.
Q2: The behaviour of any society can be changed if the social values or beliefs would also be adjusted accordingly. In this case, the residents would have to realise that what they are doing is morally unjust and of evil intent. The society would have to develop guilt.
Q3: Looking at the actual lottery today, many participate knowing well that there is a stark divide between the rich and poor and that the lottery is scandalous due to this fact. Acting as a contrast, when someone wins the lottery everyone become jealous in society. In the story, losing the lottery was followed by relief. both relief and jealousy mean that one person will end up winning big and the other will have pulled the short end of the stick.
Q4: The story made me see how easy it is to become chained to the rhythm that society aims to achieve. Its the peer pressure but also the guilty relief in participating in something as wicked as annually killing one person. Even if people know what they are doing is wrong and immoral, many will continue to do so because they have no courage to swim against the flow of others. No courage to do what's right in the midst of wrong doings.

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The village has a tradition where all villagers come together to participate in a lottery. One person is chosen and stoned to death. The environment makes the people of the village act like it is a normal tradition

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3. Behaviors could be ignorance and also the urge to be viewed as financially stable. The characters demonstrate ignorance of the well being of the SG, and just hang them, in order to be perceived as being financially stable. They completely ignore the well being of the foreigners because they want to be respected. Some actions taking place right now could be the exploitation of third world countries by China, as they steal the nations natural resources and ignore the needs of the nations local populace. Same could be said for companies such as Nestle, that exploit developing nations and strip them from necessary resources that they need to live from.

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Q4: I wondered if this story is based on real events that took place, or if the lottery was a way of keeping the population under control (arguably in a very strange way), or why the story is based in a town that seems to be the midwest of America a number of years ago, and how this relates to the effectiveness of this plot.

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2. Yes I think the lottery could have ended if they heard that the other villages wanted to stop doing the lottery, however since it's a long lasting tradition I believe that it would take some time before people finally agreed on ending the lottery

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This story made me question if the villagers realise the bad that they are doing or if it has really just become a ritual for them to kill one person every year. It made me think about how different we humans can be even though we are all humans culture, religion, upbringing has a huge influence on our values, beliefs and actions. Everyone sees things differently and have a different thought about whats right and wrong.

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Q3: I cannot think of anything that would remind me of the plot of this story being similar to some actions taking place today.

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3. A example of such action in our society today could be that following tradition blindly following a tradition without realising the effect it has on our society and its behaviour.

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1. Since the lottery is a long lasting tradition, I believe that the villagers are in a way are desensitized to killing and stoning Tessie or other people since the tradition has been implemented into their social lives so much.

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I think that the action of killing someone every year can be changed if the values and beliefs of the villagers changed. It was mentioned that other villages want to stop the tradition and other villages have already stopped. If the values of the villagers changed then there is a possibility that they would realise what they are doing is unethical and bad. The village as a group with have to come to terms with the change and realise that they are doing more harm than good with this tradition.

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2. The action of having SG could have been changed if the society considered the girls as equals to them, instead they justified the action by claiming it was far worse where the girls are from. It shows that if less countries exploit poorer nations, than this type of action would not occur, as the developing nations would have been more well off. Society would need to be more respecting of minority groups and foreigners, and would need to see them as humans.

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Q2: Yes, the society of the village would have to change in a way similar to the other villages that were mentioned, who had removed the lottery from their system. This village would also have to remove the lottery from their town system.

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3. I feel like that when there is a tradition that is held by people. People are forced to participate in it if they are within that group even though they do not agree with it. I think that there is a lot of peer pressure in these things.

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Q1: the action that occurred was Tessie being hit with stones, and the role of other people in the environment was that it was them (the villagers) who were hitting her with the stones, all based on the lottery that was drawn.

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4. This story also makes me wonder if the order in which the people come in. First the kids then the men and at last the women has anything to the with the nature of the lottery?

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1. A behavior from the story could be conformity. The narrator and his family all conform to the idea that having SG is a sign of wealth. Eva is against the idea of SG, and states that even if everyone does it, it doesn't make it good. However, the narrator still believes that having SG is a sign of wealth and it can gain respect. He proceeds to show the amount of households with SG's and says that it is okay since so many peopel have it

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2. I think that the lottery could have been prevented if more people were informed about the other villages that have stopped the tradition. However, since many people didn't know about it, it was hard to change their view on it.

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4. The story made me think about how the tradition even started, it made me wonder if one person from the village suggested the idea and the others immediately agreed or if they had to be convinced. It made me wonder what would have happened if the suggestion was denied.

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Question1:
In the story the woman was stoned to death. The environment played a big role since it has been a long standing tradition for the village. Everyone who attended participated even the little kids who probably don't fully understand what they are doing. But because of the environment and the adults stoning the lady the kids participated as well as if it was a normal thing.

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1. The village has a tradition of having a lottery where one person is chosen and stoned to death. This has been a long lasting tradition in the village. The people are influenced by the environment of the tradition to stone people to death.

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2. Yes, the lottery could change or be prevented, they talked about a different village wanting to stop the lottery. If everyone in the village agreed to stop or change the rules of the lottery, there would be no more people getting stoned. The village as a whole would have to change there deep-rooted tradition and beliefs.

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1. The people stoned the woman to death. Their actions were influenced by their environment, since the lottery was a long lasting tradition in the village. Everyone participated and had always done so.

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Question 1: Identify a "behaviour," or "action" from your story...what role did the environment (other people) play in that behaviour / action occurring? 

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Question 1: Identify a "behaviour," or "action" from your story...what role did the environment (other people) play in that behaviour / action occurring? 

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Question 2: Could the action or behaviour be changed or augmented if societal values / beliefs changed? If so, how would society need to change? 

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Question 2: Could the action or behaviour be changed or augmented if societal values / beliefs changed? If so, how would society need to change? 

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Question 3: Identify 1 or 2 correlational behaviours...as in are there any behaviours / actions today that you feel are similarly caused?  

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Question 3: Identify 1 or 2 correlational behaviours...as in are there any behaviours / actions today that you feel are similarly caused?  

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Question 4: What else did this story make you think about or consider? 

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Question 4: What else did this story make you think about or consider? 