Similarities Between Harrison Bergeron And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Individuals are the building blocks of society, but they can’t dictate the way society flows. In the short stories “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson and “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut, and the theories of enlightenment philosophers, individuals can not change society. Tessie Hutchinson from “The Lottery,” tried to persuade her village that the tradition was wrong, but she faced death. While, Harrison from “Harrison Bergeron,” tried to overthrow society's ideas, through atrocious actions. The philosophers believed that the governors of society should be responsive and secure rights for the people. With this intention in mind, an individual wouldn’t change society because it is built around the individuals. Thus, individuals can not change their society because they don’t have power in numbers, they will be condemned by society if they try, and they shouldn’t need to change society if it is built to represent.

There are so many similarities and differences between the stories "Harrison Bergeron" and "The Lottery". But basically, in "Harrison Bergeron" everyone is equal, nobody is smarter than anybody else, nobody is better looking than anybody else, and nobody is stronger or quicker than anybody else. This is because everybody wears handicaps to make everyone equal to each other. But basically, one boy named Harrison Bergeron takes matters into his own hands and goes against the government. The government basically makes all these people wear their handicaps all the time. In "The Lottery" a lottery of sorts is run by Mr. Summers on June 27th. Everybody (grown men of a household) goes to this black box and they select a piece of paper. The paper that is selected is Mr. Hutchinson. So then Mr. Hutchinson's family is the ones that are chosen. Mrs. Hutchinson immediately starts protesting because she doesn't want anyone from her family to get stoned. Get killed by airborne stones is what that is. But it can only be one person, so they pick strips of paper and the person with the black dot on their

Intro: What if someone had to wear a handicap? Or what if someone had to be treated exactly like everyone else? Would someone like to be treated like that ?. In this story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. This story takes place in the future year 2081. In the year 2081 they were all treated the same and had to wear handicaps so no one would have more power over anyone else . In addition this story a character name harrison bergeron who was in a jail because he tried to take off his handicap and he also tried to plot to overthrow the government. Another character named george also had to wear a handicap and every twenty seconds a transmitter would send a sharp noise to keep him from using unfair advantage of his brain. The theme of the story is being equal isn’t always fair.

Since the age of Thomas Moore, intellectuals have been fascinated by the idea of an ideal society where all is well and total happiness is readily available to all of its members. Such ideals of a ‘utopia’ continued throughout the centuries until it reached a major pivoting point in the nineteenth century. Historical events such as the Second World War, the Cold War, the emergence of McCarthyism, and the creation of a nuclear bomb left people with a heavily misanthropic view of the world. People started to question the practicality or realistic possibility of a utopian society, thus creating the genre of dystopian literature. (Gerhard, 2012) A dystopia is a society that could be characterized as a utopia gone wrong—a society that started with

The famed author C.S. Lewis once said,”Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” This is a statement that many can agree or disagree on. To some, it means that a ruling power or government could enforce rules and regulations on its citizens that are thought of as helping them, but instead making everything worse and are hindering them from making the society better. A counter argument could be that the oppression is helping the society become better. Some examples of this type of dystopian society are Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery. In both, they are forced by law or tradition to carry out a certain type of life, and do certain things that were originally thought to help, but in reality actually hurt them.

Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery both have a sort of calm tone throughout the stories. The Lottery starts off with a warm, welcoming tone, then evolves to a more detached The serious tone of the stories lead you away from thinking that the two societies are anything but normal. While each story ends jarringly the tones are oddly deadpan; both of the stories end with the characters brushing off the death of a loved one. A cold, chilling, or creepy tone would have taken away from the surprise ending.

Imagine living a normal life in a normal town but suddenly, your life has been turned upside down. This is the unfortunate reality for the main characters in The Giver and in “The Lottery”. In The Giver, a Utopian Society chooses a receiver of memory whos job is to handle all of the memories from generations past. In “The Lottery”, a quaint little farming town comes together for a sacrificial ritual to help get a better harvest. Both of the ritualistic styles of life in the Giver by Lois Lowry and in the short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson demonstrate the overall theme of tradition.

The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron, both share common themes and differences in their stories. One would be that both societies claim theses “traditions give them unity and equality”. Another theme commonly shared is both stories show how people can be blind to tradition. Although these stories are similar they have their differences one being Harrison Bergeron tried dyeing like a martyr while Ms. Hutchinson died trying to save her own life.

The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot. So then Tessie starts to complain that the drawing was not set up properly (Jackson). In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses the symbolism, characterization, and theme to develop this short story.

In “Harrison Bergeron” people aren’t truly equal. In this short story, they took equality to the next level. Most people think that equality is everyone being treated with the same amount of respect. Appearance has nothing to do with equality in today’s society. Although looking the same and having the same level of intelligence may decrease jealousy, people shouldn’t force others to change because of this. In this short story, everything has to do with equality. No one can be more intelligent, stronger, or more attractive. Handicaps are making people unequal.

In both short stories, the government has been modified for what they think is the best. In “Harrison Bergeron” the government has completely changed for the future. Every person in the short-story has to wear handicaps to make them equal to the other citizens. Everyone has to follow the rules, unless you want to die. Harrison Bergeron, the main character doesn’t like the guideline though. He has the most handicaps on, and does not think it is fair. He decides that he has enough of the new form

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize. It’s a beautiful summer day and everything seems perfect, but as the reader keeps reading they come to realize that this story is not as simple and straight forward as the title suggest, rather it is a horrifying and dark tale. Shirley Jackson is forwarding the theme on tragic it can be to blindly follow traditions by using foreshowing, symbolism, and dialog.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson). In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses characterization, symbolism and themes to develop the action of the short story.

The short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is full of literary elements. The old and innocent, small town atmosphere creates the perfect stage for this ironic tale. Several literary elements are evident throughout the composition but three specific elements stand out the most. Jackson’s unique ability to use tone and style, symbolism, and theme are what makes this story so fascinating.