One inspiration for my AP essay was the Wizard of Oz:  Dorothy and her friends approach the Wizard, asking for the various things they want.  His response?  "Bring me the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West, and I'll grant your request!".   One of the friends observes, as I recall, 'to do that, we'll have to kill her!'.  So, giving a reward for killing a common enemy might have come from this.  

Many decades ago, the movie was shown on television, yearly, I think in the late fall.  My mother once observed that I first saw it, perhaps when I was 18 months old, perhaps October 1959.  She said that this showing was the first time I'd been quiet for 2 straight hours since I was born.  I probably watched that movie for 20 years in a row for the next two decades.  

            Jim Bell