Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The crucible and the lottery comparison
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The crucible and the lottery comparison
A common phrase used in courts is that someone is “innocent until proven guilty.” Through the plot’s of “The Lottery” and The Crucible, this idea of people being innocent until guilty is shown, however, the part of this phrase about proving that guilt is conveniently left out. Of course, both stories took place in a time in which the villagers felt no need for there to be any kind of trial or reasoning for someone’s death. Rather, the persecutions that occured in these stories took place to ensure that barbaric tendencies did not spread among the people within their villages. This idea of keeping people from being barbaric or evil enforces the idea that perhaps people truly think that the people who choose the marked paper are really deserving
How would it feel to have friends killed with a single word? That if you tried to step in and intervene you could be targeted next? What do you do when nobody else stand up? The Crucible, written by ____, takes place in Salem during the 1600’s witch trials and revolves around false witch hunts sprouted from adulterous relationships. “The Lottery”, written by ____, takes place in a small town in america in which there is a yearly drawing. Every member in the town participates in the drawing and the person who gets the unlucky draw is stoned to death by the town.. Both The Crucible and “The Lottery” display harsh truths about the negative effects society and its influences can have on its members. One truth that is evident is the result tradition
People within communities have a large responsibility to one another. Sometimes, however, that responsibility and respect seem to fade, as in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson, and “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe. Both of these stories describe settings in which communities fell apart either briefly or all together.
Comparing "The Lottery by Shirley Jackson" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Humans are capable of both good and bad things. Many people are selfish and willing to go to any lengths to get what they want, even if it means they could hurt someone or destroy their life. Shirley Jackson and Chris Abani 's stories “The Lottery” demonstrates the cruelty humans are capable of by showing the awful things people are willing to do to others.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” People tend to behave and deal with life differently according to the situation that they are in. In most cases when a person is in a very blissful and comfortable point of his or her life, they tend to act pleasant towards themselves and other people. This is why it is not fair-minded to judge people when they are in a contented part of their lives. It is during times of trial and suffering where the true soul of a person is revealed and judgment can be made. Readers can see the actions that are made by characters through times of hardship that reveal what they truly are in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Crucible by Arthur Millar.
Though many societies are different from each other in appearance, they have more aspects in common than some may expect. This is very true in the societies in the movie, The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross, and the short story, “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson. The Hunger Games is about the struggle of a young woman who is trying to survive a deadly competition between multiple people drawn and nominated to fight to the death for sport due to a failed revolt against the government. “The Lottery” is a story about how families are picked at random with one member getting stoned to death and how a young woman decides to stand up to her society. Both The Hunger Games and “The Lottery” have many similarities in regards to tradition
Arthur Miller, an experienced author, and playwright created two largely popular plays in history, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Though the plays took place in two completely different eras, each was set in a time period in which women did not have a great deal of authority within their social and home lives. However, some were willing to overstep certain boundaries when it meant saving the lives of their loved ones. Others, unfortunately, were so confined in their so-called “rightful place” that they were willing to watch even their dearest of family members suffer and on occasion, die. While still having several similarities, Elizabeth Proctor, from The Crucible, was devoted to her husband in such a way that Linda Loman, from Death of a Salesman, could not be toward her husband.
Thou shall not commit adultery. The seventh of the Ten Commandments is an integral part in both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Though very different, John Proctor of The Crucible and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale of The Scarlet Letter are affected similarly through committing this sin. Dimmesdale, his town’s minister, and Proctor, a farmer rarely found at church, a pair of people never expected to be connected, are. Throughout both of their stories, both men have comparable experiences in the aftermath of their lechery and are even restored by the end of their journeys.
Though there are some noticeable differences between Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, however the similarities in the two stories are clear. The themes of both short stories are centered on tradition and the sacrifice of one individual for the good all. In the “The Lottery” someone is stoned to death in order for the village to be prosper. While in the “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the cities happiness solely depends on the suffering of a child whom has done nothing wrong. The point that both authors are trying to convey to the audience is; at what point do we as a society begin to question a way of doing things, question a tradition that has no real truth or reason behind
War as seen through the eyes of Ambrose Bierce in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge depicts it as truly gritty. The author successfully sends a message of how death is a part of war, and it is not as noble or glorious as one would think it is. Due to popular media, we have this attitude that the protagonist is going to go down in a blaze of glory, and while it may be true for some, it is not like that for everyone. War is rough, dark, and gritty but no one ever wants to talk about those parts of war because it would ruin the fantasy of it.
In the short stories “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” there are many similarities and many differences. Both of the stories have strange twists and turn in them. The Lottery has a title that seems some what happy and cheerful. The Possibility of Evil has a more dark and sad title. They have more similarities then their title appears to make it.
Intolerance is synonymous with small-mindedness, parochialism, bias, discrimination, and inequality. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, intolerance is the main theme. In addition to The Crucible, the Holocaust is a prime example of a historical event where intolerance is present. The underlying theme in The Crucible that usually goes hand-in-hand with intolerance is hysteria. There is a cause and effect relationship between the two; when there is a high level of intolerance, the people involved usually end up contributing to the existence of hysteria. There are many similarities between the Holocaust and The Crucible, but the one that stands out the most is the prevalence of both hysteria and intolerance being woven into the culture.
Other than the main theme of tradition, Jackson portrays the idea of scapegoating through choosing of one towns member to be stoned for the wellbeing of the town, mainly as a sacrifice for better weather for the next harvest. “A wrong is undressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.” (Poe 226) Poe shows the scapegoating through Montresor from the form of revenge to make amends for his troubled past, and that Fortunato was the scapegoat. World War 2, the mass genocide of Jews under Hitler’s regime is the ultimate description of what scapegoating truly is and that “The Lottery” is a perfect correlation of WW2’s scapegoat with the Jews, but in a smaller, very smaller form. That although the selection and murdering of the town a folk once a year could be for the next harvest, or it could be for the gods for grace of the sins of the town. Why does this type of activity or the quest of the removal of fear, regret, and sin is always used by humans, and is always used by the last resort, maybe not always in killing, but in public shaming? It seems that the people that organize and use this tool have a form of deception lased around the implementation of
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.
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.