Looking for a Rain God by Bessie Head

In the short tale “Looking for a Rain God,” a family sacrifices its two young daughters on behalf of their neighborhood in an effort to appease the “rain god,” a spirit. The country doesn’t get any rain after the sacrifice, and the family is shunned. The children’s father and his sibling are also legally hanged for their heinous deed. The story raises the issue of whether the girls’ sacrifice was actually necessary. Of course, such a practice was prevalent in African society. However, this time round the family is in rude shock when the “rain god” does not give them rain.

Bessie Head alludes to the fact that this traditional view of things will not help the community to resolve tha challenge of rain. Instead they need to focus on getting information with regards to better ways of farming such as use of drought resistant crops that do well in areas that receive little rain. In addition, there’s need to acquire better farming machines to improve their farming methods. The ritual sacrifice of children was not an answer to their plight and that the law would definitely be applied to anyone who murdered the other. Hence it was time to get rid of such an ungodly tradition.

Abraham to Kill Him by Emily Dickinson

The poem ”Abraham to Kill Him” is a poem based on the biblical story of Abraham who was told by God to give a sacrifice of his son Isaac. Abraham obeys God and almost kills his son when God stops him and provides a lamb for the sacrifice (Genesis 22). Emily Dickinson tries to assess the morality of this story. She wonders whether a loving God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son. The question of faith in religious matters also comes into play. Is faith meant to be unquestionable like in Abraham’s case?

”Not a hesitation

Abraham complied” (5-6)

She feels that Abraham’s obedience to God was a mockery of real obedience

”Flattered by obeisance

Tyranny demured” (7-8)

The conclusion of the story is that this was a test and that the sacrifice of Isaac did not actually take place.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

The Lottery is a narrative in which Shirley Jackson demonstrates an aspect of holding onto outdated traditions. Reading this story, one can easily point to deliberate use of some words and names to point to its fatal end. Some of these include ”Mr. Warner”, ”black box”, ”black spot” and ”Mr. Graves.” Right from the beginning of the story, the writer points to the rigidity of the people in this community. First, we see the reluctance to get rid of the old black box which is apparently ”shabbier…no longer completely black.” The discussion on its replacement has been postponed for many years. Secondly, the ritual of having lists of heads of families, heads of households, and the number of members in each family is still upheld. Then there is the swearing in ritual including the recital and drawing only done by males except in specified situations. All these traditions were still followed by the people. The story has a fatal end where Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death. It is then that one realizes that ”The Lottery” is done to choose the person who is meant to be stoned to death! What a weird tradition! And yet whenever discussions of getting rid of the lottery come up, people like Old Man Warner reject the proposal as a foolish idea. The moral of the story is that such traditions need to be abolished.

The Legend of the Bluebonnet

The legend is about a girl who sacrifices the doll that she adored to the spirits in order to appease the gods to send rain. After the sacrifice, there’s a heavy downfall which ends the drought and the land is full of beautiful flowers. Hence sacrifices that are made should be prized and well thought out.

Works Cited

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/abraham-to-kill-him/

https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/nav5n3.apr66_11.pdf