Compare And Contrast The Lottery And First They Came

459 Words1 Page

Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” have the same themes that can and can’t relate to each other. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a small town doing a ritual every year with a death lottery to help grow their crops. “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller is about how the Nazis came for the different people and the narrator didn’t speak out for them and there was nobody left to speak for him. If you don’t speak out for something sometimes bad things don’t change. In “The Lottery” the main reason it takes place is because the people believe that killing one person per year will help the crops grow, which is how this theme can’t relate to “First They Came”, by the Nazis killing the people not to help themselves. In “The Lottery” in paragraph 6 it talks about how it’s a ritual and how it’s not about killing people which is why nobody spoke out because it was tradition. In contrast of “First They Came” there was no tradition so they did not have a reason to not speak out. …show more content…

In other words, the people of “The Lottery” could not speak out but the people of “First They Came” could, they just chose not to speak out for each other. As a matter of fact, the people of “The Lottery” could have spoken up to end the ritual they just didn’t do it because they were too afraid of what the other townsfolk would

Show More
Related

  • Comparison/Contrast: The Lottery And First They Came

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    In contrast, “The lottery” is unlike “First They Came,” because of the point of view is third person limited rather than first person. The villagers in “The Lottery” are following tradition, something that was used many years ago and is now outdated but do not have the courage to speak out because the majority

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between The Things They Carried And The Lottery

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    The stories, “The Things they Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, have some similar characteristics and others are different. Keeping a tradition, however, in “The Things they Carried” the main character actually wakes up and changes how he is and becomes more realistic. Unlike “The lottery” where everyone is participating in a murder but not noticing what they are actually doing; to them it is a tradition. The settings are quite the opposite in these stories and also how the characters act. The theme of these stories are the same, however there are other elements that are different in these stories, such as their settings and characters.

    Read More

  • Comparison between The Lottery and The Village

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "The lottery," the people are forced to follow the custom of holding the lottery each year that necessitates the felony of stoning an innocent person to death. As the reader's prospective, it seems utterly inhuman, but the people in the village do not perceive what they are performing. They are completely deprive of perception because the practice of stoning a human being for winning the lottery is viewed as accustomed. Since it has been performed for so many decades. In "The Village," the habitants are misleaded because the younger population is not aware of what they call" those we do not speak of" do not exist. The villagers are not aknowledge of the fact that the imaginary creature that lives in the woods is a false ...

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting The Lottery and The Yellow Wallpaper

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two very meaningful and fascinating stories. These stories share similarities in symbols and themes but they do not share the same plot which makes it different from one another. Furthermore, “The lottery” was held in New England village where 300 people were living in that village. This event took place every once a year. Besides, the story begins where on one beautiful morning, everyone in that village gathered to celebrate the lottery. The surroundings were such that children were gathering stones while adults were chatting with each other. It was compulsory for every head of family or house to draw a slip of paper out of the box. In addition to that, the family that draws the slip in the black do will have to re draw in order to see who will win the lottery. Therefore, the winner of the lottery will be stoned to death. This is very shocking because in today’s lottery events, the winner will be awarded cash.

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Lottery And The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Who walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin seem to have few differences when it comes to plot and theme.. Both stories paint a picture of a perfect society built on dark secrets of human sacrifice and tradition. From start to finish the authors follow parallel story lines.. It seems the two stories were meant to teach the reader about blind attachment to repetitive rituals and the darkness of sacrifice.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Lottery And Dead Men's Path

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    The final acknowledged similarity between both intriguing works of literature is the way they start off versus the way the ended. Both stories start off with a sense of happiness and serenity but soon take a dark turn for the worst. “The Lottery” starts off describing a happy summer day in which the lottery is set to take place:

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between The Hunger Games And The Lottery

    196 Words  | 1 Pages

    These stories are alike and different in many ways. In “The Lottery” the men of the families pick a card/piece of paper out of a jar. In “The Hunger games” a certain individual is appointed to choose two names out of a jar. In “The Lottery” they drew papers for a religious purpose. They wanted to get the bad people out of their community. In “The Hunger Games” they did it to prove a point. The president wants to show everyone who is in charge. In “The Lottery” whoever gets chosen automatically gets killed. In “The Hunger Games” if someone gets chosen they get a chance to fight or someone can volunteer in their place. In both stories, the tributes/victim is chosen at random. The community has no idea who will be picked until it happens. In both

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Hunger Games And The Lottery

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many similarities in, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Both books show many similarities in relation to the themes, characters, and settings. These two authors are a prime example of how two situations in different eras in time can posses many similarities despite their differences.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Lottery And First They Came

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    The lottery is a story about a village that has been blindly following this tradition for many years. Everybody has been copying what has been done for years. They are picking a name from a hat and killing the person. One character, Tessie, comes late and seems less eager than others. Then she gets chosen as the victim. In First they came, it is a poem about soldiers who are taking people from certain groups like “Socialists, trade unionists, and Jews.” away. The author does not speak out against it, and they came for him.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Lottery And The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Lottery, the town had participated in the lottery for many years, so they did not want to do away with it, even though it called for an innocent person to get stoned, whether it be someone’s mother, father, significant other, child, etc. The story from 1948 can be related to today’s world in the form of bullying. Bullying is a huge concern nowadays, and that is what takes place in the lottery that the community participates in each year. For one person to get stoned because they drew the piece of paper with a mark on it is evil and not fair. I don’t see how they can be such a happy little community where everybody knows everybody, and they know that each year someone is going to

    Read More

  • 'Rituals In The Lottery'

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prior to the audience knowing the type of lottery being held the day carries on as a rather normal day. Children run about town square playing and gathering stones and rocks ,while the adults are preparing for the lottery later that evening. But the main item that seems to occupy the villager’s thoughts is the little mysterious black box in which the ballot for everyone was dropped into. Midway through the narrative she writes that the villagers don’t know much about the lottery’s origin but try to still preserve the tradition. Magnifying the theme of how the strength of tradition and willingness to fit in with others can lead people blindly to fulfill dangerous and deadly rituals such as human sacrifice. Old Man Warner is so faithful to the tradition that he fears the villagers will return to primitive times if they stop holding the lottery.Being so wrapped up in the idea of the tradition ,they get carried away and forget what they are doing is murder. And they don’t have a reason for doing it other than the fact that they’ve always held a lottery to kill. If the villagers stopped to question it, they would be forced to ask themselves why they are

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Lottery was a short story by Shirley Jackson. In a small village of about 300 , on every June 27th, they have a lottery. The Husbands pick a slip of paper from an old black box, then wait to open the paper till announced. After the papers were opened, whoever had a black dot on the paper would “win” the lottery. In this case, Mrs. Hutchinson was declared the winner. She had received many “congratulations.” In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the symbolism and theme appeared to have been very shocking, the title had meant something a little different than what the reader had in mind.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of how men treat women as objects.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Giver And The Lottery

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    Both The Giver and “The Lottery” share important messages and themes. The Giver is a suspenseful science fiction novel by Lois Lowry. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, is a realistic fiction short story. Both of these include dysfunctional societies where cruel traditions are followed.. The Giver is about a “Utopia” where the government is in complete control of the people and has an excessive amount of power. “The Lottery” is about a town following extremely outdated traditions that results in the death of someone each year. Both stories share the common theme of, “People follow traditions without realizing the consequences.”

    Read More

  • Comparing The Lottery And The Story Of An Hour

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Death can come in many ways. It can be sudden, or over a strenuous period of time. It can seem random, but sometimes is planned and thought out. There are just about as many ways to deal with death, as there are ways to die. While both The lottery and The Story of an Hour explore the theme of death and grief, The lottery tells a tale of the sacrificial death for a community (necessary, no grief) while The Story of an Hour depicts the natural death of a loved one (grief, but, later, revelation) and how we eventually come to terms with it.

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast The Lottery And First They Came

Open Document