Deception

One theme that is in "The Lottery" is deception. There is deception because the title doesn't mean what you think it would at first. In the story there is a lottery throughout the town. You would think that the people of this town would be over joyed to win. But you're wrong! Who ever wins this so called lottery gets stoned to death. Throughout the book Mrs. Hutchinson says that the lottery was rigged and how her husband didn't get enough time to pick. When reading it's confusing because don't you want to win the lottery? Not exactly a lottery you would want to win.

3 Viruses

Imagine, just laying in bed, sweating, with outbreaks of spots and tearing of skin all over your body. These are many effects of diseases. Some diseases are fatal. There are millions of viruses but three of the worst ones are swine flu, yellow fever, and small pox and almost none of them have pro’s, all con’s. The definition of a virus is “an agent that sickens one, but needs a host to reproduce (Virus). It consists of a core made of DNA and surrounded by a layer of protein” (Virus). Which basically means that it makes one sick, there aren’t any pro’s. Some symptoms are fever, cough, chills, vomiting, headaches and excessive diarrhea (Swine Flu Symptoms) . To me those are all con’s, no pro’s. There are ways to prevent these three horrific viruses. Most of the time, when people go to Africa or places around there they get the yellow fever vaccine (Ethiopian Adoptive Family Care). Since there have been a few documentations of yellow fever outbreaks in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Adoptive Family Care). Although there can be some side effects from the vaccination. Some side effects of the vaccination are fever like symptoms and sore arms. The swine flu vaccination has pretty much the same effects as the yellow fever. Some are tenderness, redness, and swelling where the shot was given (Hitti). Terrorism is a terrible thing that is sadly going on through the world right now. Everyone is afraid of the big guns but another many people aren’t afraid of that they should be is smallpox. For the past decade the U.S. has been afraid that terrorist will use smallpox against us as a weapon (Yellow Fever). If terrorists let that into the world it would be terrible because it is highly contagious (Smallpox Disease Overview). All you need is face to face interactions for it to spread from a person to another (Smallpox Disease Overview). Also it spreads very quickly (Smallpox Disease Overview). When you hear virus, right away you think of bad but there can be stuff that helps, but most often there aren’t really pro’s, just con’s. Kind of reminds you of jail. It’s good we have science so we don’t break out with torn skin and perspiration issues.

Percy's Themes

Loneliness is a terrible thing. No one ever wants to be lonely. Unlucky for Percy Jackson, the main character in “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan he’s kind of an outsider. This is why loneliness and isolation is the main theme of this book, although there are other themes. The biggest theme in the book is isolation and loneliness because he was dyslexic and got expelled from every school he ever attended. Then once he found out he was a demigod which is a kid born of a Greek God and human that made him different even more. Due to being a demigod he also had to stay at a camp that was only demigods were allowed. Even though he was just like all the other demigods he wasn’t. He wasn’t because he was a son of the “Big 3”. This means he was a son of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades. Percy is a son of Poseidon. He is the only son or daughter born of the “Big 3” since WW2 which is when they took the oath to not have any more kids because they were to powerful. So Percy was different and didn’t fit in the mortal and Greek God world. The second theme is love. Percy’s mother is captured by Hades Minotaur and is kept in the Underworld. Percy must battle some of the most powerful things known and unknown to man. But one thing is straight he loves his mom and his mom loves him. As Mrs. Jackson is being disintegrated by the Minotaur her last words are “I love you Percy, good luck”. Percy gets offered a part on the dark side but doesn’t take it because of his love towards his mother. In return Percy’s mothers love towards him is what fuels him to conquer evil and save his mother. Rick Riordan first took interest in Greek Mythology as a young boy due reading “Lord of the Rings”. He said he loved it so much that he read it ten times. This lead him to study Greek Mythology in high school and college (Riordan). Which then lead him to pursue his dream of being a full time author (Riordan). He got a huge idea of the book Camp Halfblood from where he taught in the summer, a summer camp. The events throughout his early years are what lead him to such a great book. The theme of isolation and loneliness is just like “The Outsiders”. Ponyboy and his group of friends are greasers. They’re outside of the click called the Soc’s which are the rich kids. All the kids pick on them because there poor and their hair has more grease then a Pizza Hut pizza. The Lightning Thief connects to The Outsiders because Percy is different from the other kids. Just like Ponyboy, he is different but only cause of how much hair grease he uses. Loneliness is not only a theme but the lifestyle. Because of isolation all the other themes tie into together, hand by hand.