Themes Of The Lottery And First They Came

Do you think that “standing up for what’s right may not always the easiest path” could be a theme for both “The Lottery” and “First They Came”? Well, if you want to find out stick around and you’ll see how they’re different and how they’re alike. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a small town about 300 people that every year they do this tradition. There’s a black box and slips of paper. If you get the paper with the dot on it, then you win the lottery. If you “win” the lottery then your get your win death by getting stoned to death. “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller is about when Hitler and the Nazis came for the Jews and the Socialists and the other people, and Martin didn’t stand up for them and then when he got taken nobody

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.

Dystopian stories works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction”. Often these stories have many themes that can relate to the real world. In the dystopian story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, many themes such as false hopes,hypocrisy, ritual, and mob mentality are expressed throughout the story. In the story everyone in a small village gather in the town square for the lottery, whoever gets chosen gets stoned to death by everyone in the town including friends and loved ones. The use of different themes throughout the story relate to the literary devices and universal storytelling elements setting, verbal irony, symbolism, and social cohesion.

Where does fear come from? Does it give us courage or does it paralyze us? Is it always rational or do we sometimes fear what we don’t understand? “The Lottery” and “Big Black Good Man” are two short stories that offer a glimpse into fear and the rationality or irrationality of that fear.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

In the first place, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson conveys, “Standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest path,” differently from “First They Came.” In paragraph 77, Mrs. Hutchinson said “it isn’t fair”, that she won the Lottery and she had to have stones at her head. Some of the villagers didn’t want Mrs. Hutchinson to die but they had to go along with the crowd or he or she would die, in paragraph 78. Also in paragraph 76 it says that “someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles”, Little Davy had to throw stones at her own mom even though he didn’t want to hurt her.

All around the world today thousands of people die from murder and the numbers increase every year. Our world is filled with violence and tragedies that keep increasing, just like in, Shirley Jackson's story “The Lottery.” The characters in a small village choose someone to stone to death each year because of tradition. As this tradition continues, more and more people die as time passes. All of the towns folk grow more and more nervous, hoping not to get picked. They gather in the town square to choose the person who is killed in this unfortunate event as you meet characters like the hutchinsons, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Summers as they go through the fear of being picked. As the children pile up stones that they use for the killing. All

Human civilizations have always been accustomed to creating and accepting various traditions and rituals that provide a sense of predictability and comfort. These traditions are largely blindly followed with practically no opposition with fear of being singled out. Furthermore, gender roles and expectations have been a part of many traditions spanning many cultures throughout the course of history. The first and major theme that this work showcases is that traditions are adhered to by means of customs and rituals. The second encompassing theme will discuss gender roles and how it affects behaviors. Lastly, the third theme will outline how persecution is indiscriminate and unremorseful.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson has many themes or message throughout its short story. It deals with blind faith, customs and traditions, the idea of scapegoat, the cruelty of human nature, crowd psychology, and even classic gender roles in many societies.

The theme of “The Lottery” By Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” By Martin Niemoller standing up for what is right may not always be the easiest path. The theme means it can be hard to stand up for what you think is right and a lot of times people are afraid of what people think. ‘The lottery’ is about an event every year during the summer that everyone in the village gathers for this event, The husbands of each family draws out of the black box and whoever gets the black dot gets stoned. ‘First they came’ is about that if you don’t have anyone who stands ups for you no one will speak up for you. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller deals with standing up for what you believe in is not always the easiest path, but they do so in different ways.

Two stories from different genres and different points of view, somehow deals the same theme. Standing up for what is right may not always be the easiest path, there is was some consequence that people have to pay for trying to make things right. Everyday there is something going on that people want to change, but they cannot always stand up. In the story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, villagers gather in the town square, to the annual lottery, where only one person is lucky. However, “winning” is actually losing in this story, the “winner” gets stoned to death by their peers. Mrs. Hutchinson was the “lucky winner”, however, she was trying to tell everyone in the village that it was unfair. “First They Came,” by Martin Niemoller is a true

Shirley Jackson's story, The Lottery is about a group of towns people who meet every year on the 27th of June. On this day a stoning takes place, as it washes away the sins of everyone that lived in the village. However, should the tradition of the stoning be changed when it becomes your time?

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a story of an unusual town caught in a trap of always following tradition, even when it is not in their best interest. Jackson uses symbols throughout the story that relate to the overall theme. This helps the reader clearly understand her main message. Jackson uses setting, tone and symbols to convey a theme to her audience. By doing so she creates significant connections to the theme using old man Warner and the black box as examples.

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” ― Bertrand Russell. Humans, our behavior to follow the crowd is deeply embedded within us; this reluctance to stand out, out of self-preservation is what jeopardizes society. This same behavior is found evident In The Lottery, in which the social norms and expectations of the town, when blindly followed by people ignorant to their purposes and impacts, can become dangerous and even life-threatening.

The short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a community following a long tradition in which it happens annually. All the people in the town would gather around and choose a piece of paper from a wooden box. If someone in the family received a black circle then that family would draw pieces of paper again and whoever got it within their family (the piece of paper with the black circle) would be killed by the entire town including their family. This short story follows a theme of tradition, a violent one. Likewise, in the story, “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, a young African-American boy is to go to a bar where they have a boxing ring set up. He, along with nine other African-Americans, are brought into this ring, given gloves, and were to fight in front of a crowd of rich, white people, until they could not. In other words, knocking out your opponent cold. It was after this, whoever was the last man standing would give a speech to the people watching. But, what the young boy was going to give a speech about, the elite whites could care less and ridiculed him for being as smart as, or even smarter than they were. The prize instead of death, was a scholarship for the Negros College. The theme in this story is a violent tradition as well. Even though, in The Lottery everyone in the community knows each other and must kill his or her own family if chosen. No one in Battle Royal dies, but the tradition in the two remain the same. Communities following a very