Compare And Contrast The Lottery And Harrison Bergeron

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” both tell stories using literary techniques of tone, symbolism, and irony that help to convey stories that leave the reader baffled by their ending. Although Hawthorne and Jackson utilize these literary techniques in a different way, both of the stories end with a sense of darkness.

People with power in society often have the ability to influence the practice of certain traditions. These traditions can affect what a citizen is entitled to do. In today's day and age, life without basic freedoms and rights sounds unthinkable. However, in Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” and Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron” this is the reality. Old Man Warner and the Handicapper General show that people in positions of authority encourage outdated traditions that ultimately lead to innocent people getting hurt.

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

They are generally different because one character actually does something that most of society wants while one just doesn’t want accept it and society doesn’t care. In Harrison Bergeron the people agree with Harrison that they want freedom, “ ‘If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and a few of them lead balls. Just a few.’ ” Evidently they want freedom as well. In The Lottery they don’t care very much. Even the character’s son throws a rock at her. Evidently society doesn’t care that much in Harrison Bergeron but in The lottery they care much more. They are generally different because one character actually does something that most of society wants while one just doesn’t want accept it and society doesn’t care. The two texts differ for various

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” both paint fairly morbid pictures of what extreme conformity can do in society. The two stories have vastly different settings and employ dissimilar approaches to the subject of conformity. Despite this, they both suggest that the need to conform, which is encouraged by American society, is dangerous and can lead to the loss of freedoms and loss of life. The two also insinuate that standing up to authority for purely selfish reasons is pointless.

The short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, Written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry both share a theme of forced equality and uniformity. Both stories take place in dystopian worlds. Woven throughout both of the stories are, authority is forcing egalitarianism onto citizens because they want an indefectible civilization. In the short story Harrison Bergeron, the world is ruled by Handicap General were in The Giver the world is ruled by the Elders, so that the community would be equal. But in both stories the protagonist goes against the community to break the peace and gain freedom and demonstrates how the authority always doesn’t know the best.

Before I start to write this paper, I have to say that I literally like this passage “The Lottery”, because it reflects many of the problems that exist in today’s society. The passage “ Lottery ” has several visible subjects and symbols as well as some that are not easy to find them. I personally found that one of the main subjects to this article is tradition. Later on I figured out that the tone is a very significant element in the article. Shirley Jackson uses the tone in "The Lottery" is not entirely same with the subjects mentioned above. I compared with the previous articles that we have read which was “The One Who walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin, he uses a satirical tone to describe utopianism; nevertheless, let’s return to this article, Shirley Jackson uses a very light tone, but at the end of the passage, I can see that there’s a dark ending in the story.

Second, as there are only a few characters in both short stories, they are very different characters but left imprints in my mind. First, in “Harrison Bergeron” there is Harrison Bergeron who is 14 years old, a genius, a strong athlete, and wears the strongest handicaps of all the people such as bifocals to damage his sight, three hundred pound weights hold him down, and the loudest ear radio. Second, there is Harrison’s father, George Bergeron who is also handicapped by the government for being smart and strong. Third, his mother, Hazel Bergeron who doesn’t need any handicaps because they classify her as an average American who lacks smarts, beauty, and brains. Then the TV announcer who has a speech impediment tried to speak for a few moments on an interrupted new cast, but then passes the microphone to a ballerina to read, who people could tell was beautiful, and strong because

“The Lottery” and “Harrison Bergeron” describe how people are vulnerable to great leadership and are blinded in how it is affecting their lives. In “Harrison Bergeron” the Handicapper General forces everyone to wear handicaps to enforce equality within the society. What the people don’t realize is that they are being mistreated by the Handicapper General in the name of equality, people are being abused by the handicaps but they are all blinded by Handicapper Generals great leadership. In “The Lottery” old man Warner is the one that strongly wants to follow a tradition that limits the population by killing people. Everyone is blinded by the culture old man Warner has shown them; the people believe that there is no other way to feed everyone if the population keeps increasing, because old man Warner is strongly with this culture they follow, people are not aware of how cruel and foolish their culture is. It is not easy for humans to resist great leadership but we must make sure that we are not blinded by it.

The short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Johnson and “Just lather, that’s all” by Hernando Tellez both portray similar situations even though they are two entirely different stories. The two stories both illustrate human feelings and behaviors mostly in reference to fear, violence, unfairness and pride. These two stories, even though they have some things in common, still have some differences and represent some ideas in different fashions. The similarities and differences between these stories have been critically reviewed and will be discussed in the essay.

Nebeker, Helen E. “The Lottery’: Symbolic Touch De Force” Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale Group, 2000, 75 vols, pp. 187-90. Originally published in American Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, March, 1974, pp. 100-07.

Would you rebel for something you believe in, but everyone else does not? Would you die for the cause of something good and helpful to the world? This is exactly what Harrison did. In Chandler Tuttle’ 2081 and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” Harrison's appearances, beliefs, the equipment used on him, and the responses he receives and produces are important aspects to both medias. Though, the short story and film both have its own unique features that help us connect to his personality. Harrison from “Harrison Bergeron” is a considerate, ignored hero, but also an outsider to the people for his beliefs; since he uses the threatening and self-centered words to express his bitterness and words, many feel he is egocentric, but he has only said this to get his word across, although, in 2081, Harrison is a wise, intellectual, mature, and a Christ-like figure, who appeals to our senses in a better way than Harrison from the short story does explaining why the current system is not effective.

Henry ford, once wisely said,’’ History is more less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today’’. “The Lottery” and “Harrison Bergeron” are the best deprivation short stories. Harrison Bergeron” and “The Lottery” both reveal that it is human nature to blindly want a better situation without considering all the possible outcomes. Not just in these stories, but also in reality, people want to attain an equal society, although many people do not consider how everyone will become equal, in ‘’Harrison Bergeron’’ He is afraid of everything and try to enlighten to other member of society and In Shirley Jackson’s ‘’The Lottery’’ the story shows winning the lottery is bad, but in the lottery the lucky winner who draws the winning paper then gets the prize of being stoned death. Jackson uses Tessie Hutchinson’s character to condemn force. However, both stories are false equality and blind traditions but both societies while awareness is the difference between them.

Therefore, because of the lottery being such a respectable tradition, it is strictly enforced to keep it original and antique. For instance, when Mr. Summers addresses the crowd “All ready? Now I’ll read the names –heads of families first—and the men come up to take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hands without looking at it until everyone has had a turn, everything clear” (Jackson, 3)? This quote is a perfect example of the rules and regulations of the lottery, because even though the members of the village have heard this time and time again, Mr. Summers still repeats it. He repeats it because if he does not, the laws of the lottery will be broken which can bring about a bad harvest. Mr. Summers follows an elaborate system of rules for creating the slips of paper and making up the lists of families. When the lottery begins, he lays out a series of specific rules for the villagers, including who should draw slips of paper from the black box and when to open those papers. For generations and generations, these rules were always followed; to insure a good harvest, and follow tradition. The lottery’s unique rules lead up to the randomness of the murder at the end. Meanwhile in the short story Harrison Bergeron, the government admires an egalitarian point of view instead of traditional. The United States of America is run by the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. Due to the 211th 212th and 213th

In the “Gryphon”, even though the substitute was ostracised with the other children, she was still accepted and valued by the narrator. She gave him a new perspective. Unfortunately, in the case of Mrs. Hutchinson, her actions were not valued or respected, and nobody stood up for her. None of the citizens followed their moral compass, they just followed the crowd because it was considered an “a valued tradition”. Thus, resulting in her tragic death. With this being a tradition, some people were chosen multiple times demonstrates the power the lottery has over the people. The narrator in the “Gryphon” surpassed the power that “traditions” have over their society to feel a true connection with the new knowledge that the substitute had to offer. In the “Lottery”, they didn’t really have a choice, their fate was determined for the chosen victim, but in the instance of the “Gryphon”, they had a choice. A choice to believe in the substitute or a choice to live in ignorance while the society feeds them false information. The narrator was able to understand things from another source besides what he was told from his all-powerful authorities. In the “Lottery”, even the kids participated in it, thinking it was alright, for they weren’t educated about what is right and what is considered wrong. Moreover, they unknowingly were committing a