Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin focus heavily on tradition and the great sacrifice of one person for the good of the community. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” the person who’s every aspect of happiness is sacrificed for the happiness of the whole town. In “The Lottery” a random individual is forced to sacrifice their life in order to maintain a tradition that the town has held for a significant amount of time. In both short stories the children are important and both texts create fronts of pleasantness when describing the setting in the opening sentences but the reader is later shocked by the brutality of the townsfolk who choose to continue to follow such a tradition. …show more content…
In this case the cost is great because it is a person’s life. The individual who wins the lottery which is done once a year is forced to be stoned to death and all the people in the town choose to blindly follow this absurd tradition because it is the only thing they have known to do all their lives without really thinking about the fact that they are killing someone who they most likely have known their entire lives. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” shows a child who is forced to sacrifice his or her happiness for that of the community’s. The child is put into grave conditions with little food or water and yet when seeing this people choose not to do anything because in doing so they would be jeopardizing the very foundation and happiness of the community, so in their minds what’s one’s happiness for the happiness of several thousand? Those who see this and decide that this tradition is terrible choose to walk away never to return. In “The Lottery” walking away doesn’t seem to be an option whereas in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” walking away is an option but at the same time their sacrificing their own comfortable life in their home in order to do this because seeing another sacrifice so much seems to be hard for them to …show more content…
This can be clearly shown in “The Lottery” when the Shirley Jackson opens with, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” Reading this the last thing anyone would expect would be the brutal sacrifice of an individual. The same can be said for “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” when it opens with, “With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags.” It’s a shaking awareness that although things seem a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the way it is. Tradition is the core of these short stories and that is evident as they both progress to the cruel realization that it’s difficult to escape tradition when it’s the one thing you have been grown up with
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the theme that blindly following traditions is dangerous in her short story “The Lottery” through the use of symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony.
In the story, The Lottery, there are many signs of duality of human nature. Many of the characters appear to be affected by the lottery at first, but towards the end their feelings start to change. Tessie, Mr.Summers, and Mrs.Delacroix all show two sides of humanity and they all generally appear to be good natured people, but are they really?
Several generations have gone through some type of an unfair law that they had to obey, for example, in past generations African Americans were enslaved, but more presently the lack of rights the LGBT members have with marriage. This can relate to the stories “Antigone” and “The Lottery” because the characters in each story went through unfair tragedies. The laws in each of these stories are different, but actually very similar as shown by the end result.
Comparing "The Lottery by Shirley Jackson" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin
This sounds horrible to the modern ear because human sacrifice is not just frowned upon, it is punishable by the government in most parts of the world. In a less civilized time, however, the sacrifice seems reasonable. Sacrifice one life, once a year, to have a harvest that can feed the town throughout the year. The loss of one for many, when said like this the winner of the lottery should feel lucky to have the opportunity to save the rest of the town from a hard year and increase the overall vitality of the town. Of course, this concept is even more appealing for those who lose the lottery because not only do they get to live, they get to live comfortably.
In conclusion, “The Lottery” and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” both showed a town’s tradition. “The Lottery” had more religious symbolisms than “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”. “The Lottery” used the symbolisms to show a better understanding of the, not judging a book by its cover, theme. Breaking old traditions may be the best decision. Some of the Omelas walked away from the tradition, while others stayed. No one wanted to change in “The Lottery”, unless it was them getting stoned.
What Purpose Do Scapegoats Serve In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” And “The Lottery”?
To stand firm in ones beliefs is a difficult task. It takes a strong-minded person with boldness to stand for what he or she believes in. The possible consequence for doing so is isolation, humiliation or the success of changing ones view. Given that standing up for oneself makes the person vulnerable, out of fear, many suppress their ideas and settle for the beliefs of others. In The Lottery, The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas and The Namesake, the characters struggled with the decision to conform to society or go against social norms to defend their morals.
The stories of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Summer Rituals” by Ray Bradbury are of tradition and gathering’s. During the summer, men, women, and children gather for an annual event.”Summer Rituals” has a positive family gathering on the front porch. “The Lottery” is a dark story that takes place in a village.The townspeople get together to draw a piece of paper and see who is chosen to get stoned to death. Each story has a connection to each other through their traditions
The Theme Comparisons between The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K .
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
Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.
The fundamental principles of “utilitarianism” is that the moral is worthy of an action that benefits the majority of the population and minimizes the negative consequence of the action, thus the “greatest happiness rationale” rules. This further implies that the welfare of the entire population is more important than the welfare of a sole individual. Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, and the United States military draft lottery demonstrate two different examples of lottery practices – the stoning in “the Lottery” and the raising of military manpower through the draft lottery. Both of these examples claim the major aim is allegedly for the welfare of the majority, however otherwise. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” epitomizes communities, America, the world, and the orthodox society in its entirety through utilizing setting and most significantly various representations with her imaginative, enigmatic literary style. The Lottery was written in 1948 and this was approximately three years following the release of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Shirley Jackson illustrates through the setting of the story, a humble, close-knit community, that despite the population’s ignorance to evil, it is still prevailing in the lottery. Lottery in the story pertains to the villagers’ yearly ritual of sacrificing and stoning a member of the community in exchange for a plentiful harvest. The façade of the lottery may appear beneficial for the majority of the villagers because, according to their belief, doing the lottery will provide them with an abundant harvest (Jackson). The sacrifice of one community member may appear justifiable because that one person’s sacrifice is for the good of the entire community. However, if we are going to...
The sacrifice made to appease the gods is an ancient custom to insure that the harvest provides what is necessary to support the village. Amy Griffin describes this phenomenon in her essay “Jackson's The Lottery” by saying “ancient peoples began sacrificial rituals to emulate the resurrection cycle” and describes the resurrection cycle, what she terms the scapegoat archetype, as “transferring one's sins to persons or animals and then sacrificing them, people believed that their sins would be eliminated”(44). This removing of sins was supposed to appease the gods and allow them to bless the village with prosperity. The majority of the village is oblivious to this meaning, the sacrifice of one for the benefit of the whole. Old Man Warner, however, does remember “used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon'” (Jackson 393). Old Man Warner is, however, the only one that remembers anything about this original meaning. Death by stoning, which in itself is ancient and steeped in many rituals, is the fate that awaits the chosen victim....
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.