Compare And Contrast The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The two stories, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, and “First They Came,” by Martin Niemoller, are very different. But both address the theme, standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest path. The story, “The Lottery,” is a short story about a village with about 300 people in it. Every year, the village holds a lottery. This lottery ends in someone’s life being ended by family, friends, and the rest of the villagers. Their death is because of a simple black dot on a slip of paper. The story, “First They Came,” is a nonfiction poem about someone watching as groups of people get taken away, until finally, they came for him. These groups include Socialists, Trade Unionists, and Jews, and then there is the main character. In his own group, all on his own. Even though these are very different stories, they still do have some of the same themes.

Henceforth, the lottery by Shirley Jackson is the same as the poem First They Came, by Martin Niemoller because they both deal with justice and indifference. The evidence is that in the short story The lottery deals with justice and indifference because when Mrs. Hutcheson got killed she said this isn’t fair it isn’t right. In the poem First they came he stood up for what he thinks is right and Martin got put in concentration camps for standing up for what is right. In the lottery Tessie had no one to stand up for her, she

In a time when the influence of society outweighs all and protagonists follow either righteousness or selfishness there are many similarities and a lot of contrast. In The Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross there is Katniss Everdeen who is righteous in her own way at a time when the entertainment of society ruled all. Then you have “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson where the traditions of society rules all including Tessie’s egoistic way of thinking. In both “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games the influence of society over individual people as a theme will be compared. As well as society’s influences affecting the virtues of each stories’ protagonists.

In the short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses figurative language, symbolism, and irony to reveal her theme that things are not always what they seem to be. In this shocking short story, she reveals the corruption of human nature by telling of the ceremony they call “The lottery”.

In the stories “The Lottery” and “Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson there is a plethora of correlating similarities between the two genuinely intriguing story lines. Detailed writing is often fascinating to read and allows the reader to vividly imagine the characters and the setting of the story, which is precisely the reason why the settings and characters in Shirley Jackson’s short stories “The Lottery” and “ Possibility of Evil” are easy to vividly imagine and understand.

Shirley Jackson is to be considered one of the best authors of the 1900’s. Her style of writing reeled in readers from all different ages. She can be creepy, hilarious, and inspiring to the eyes that see her words. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, she keeps the reader on the edge of their seat wanting to continue reading beyond the final word. She uses literary devices to shape her story to grab her readers attention all throughout the story. By using these literary devices, Shirley Jackson shows off her dark and twisted side as well as her fantastic writing style to emphasize why she is one of the writers of her generation.

Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller have a theme of following the crowd can have disastrous consequences, but they do it in different ways. The short story “The Lottery” is a story about a small village on a nice and sunny day. Once every year they hold a lottery by drawing names out of a black box. Whoever “wins” the lottery is then stoned to death. In the poem “First They Came” the author speaks about his own experiences in concentration camps. He says how they came for certain groups of people then for him. Both of the text deal with disastrous consequences by following the crowd, however they are done is different ways.

In this semester, we’ve read “The Lottery” and “Harrison Bergeron” from the textbook. They are two short stories; “The Lottery” was written by Shirley Jackson, and “Harrison Bergeron” was written by Kurt Vonnegut. This essay is to compare the similarities and differences between them.

1. What are the first signs that something sinister lurks beneath the surface of this story? How does the end alter our perception of the events of the day?

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.

The author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson decided it was important to write this short story in order to inform the readers about another dimension, where a certain common tradition gets prized with something obscure. Some readers can be shocked when reading this story, because they might be surprised and even shocked with the themes that play along in the storyline. This short story “The Lottery” was so controversial at the time, because in the date it was published in June 24, 1948 there were so many themes from the stories that could relate to past events or even event that were taking place at the time.

To illustrate, in the stories “The Lottery” and “Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson there is a plethora of correlating similarities between the two genuinely intriguing story lines. Furthermore, detailed writing is often fascinating to read and allows the reader to vividly imagine the characters and the setting of the story, which is precisely the reason why the settings and characters in Shirley Jackson’s short stories “The Lottery” and “ Possibility of Evil” are easy to vividly imagine and understand.

The defeat of Initiative 42, Mississippi’s best hope for adequately funding K-12 public school education, was devastating to Mississippi public school educators and their many supporters. Since the defeat, the question has been, “What do we do next?” Like so many others, I questioned if there was any need to even try to fight the system any longer. However, after a lot of thought and soul searching, I am resolved that it is more important than ever before to continue the fight. In fact, I have a plan of action that may sound farfetched on the surface, but it just might work. The plan is at least a step to rekindle the flame that educators and parents must keep burning on this issue.

Each of the stories begin with a description of a beautiful summer day. “The flowers were blooming profusely and the grass was richly green"(para 1) in “The Lottery" is quite comparable to "old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees"(para 1) in "...Omelas." These descriptions (along with several others) provide positive connotations and allow the reader to relax into what seems to be a comfortable setting in either story. Both stories also contain gathering of townspeople. In "...Omelas there is music, dance, and special attire incorporated in the gathering, whereas in "The Lottery," the women show up "wearing faded house dresses and sweaters." Although Le Guinn’s environment seems more festive, all the folks in both stories are coming together for what seems to be enjoyable, even celebratory occasions. However, I believe the major similarity lies in the fact that these many pleasant details create facade within each story. The reader is then left ill-prepared when the shocking, brutally violent, ritualistic traditions are exposed.

Believing in a passion can be persuasive to others. If one has a passion for something, there is an uncontrollable emotion about it. Everyone in the world is different, if it was not that way, the world would not go around. Someone may have a passion for something that another person can not stand. In “The Lottery,” there was a negative passion for people getting stoned. The emotions of others that did not get stoned were horrific for the one getting stoned to death. The father in “Without Title,” had a huge passion for hunting buffalo. The only problem was that his wife did not let him, she made him work in the city while he would have worked otherwise in the woods. In “Texas vs. Johnson,” as a whole community and around the world, there