The Lottery And The Most Dangerous Game Analysis

According to Thomas Jefferson, “What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.” Society’s unfairness has been fiercely discussed. The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson and The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell both demonstrated the unfairness of society. There are some similarities and differences with the plot, conflict and the theme which are the three major elements in a story. Theme is the underlying message of a story. In the text, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, the theme is blindly following tradition. The text states, “The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles.” Thus this quotation echoes the theme of blindly following tradition because it states that even the person who has to die for the tradition is the family member, people still stoned him or her until the person died. In contrast to the theme in The Lottery, in the text, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, where the theme is hunter against the hunted. The text claims, “Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder.” Therefore, the reason this quotation supports the idea of hunter versus hunted it is stated by Rainsford when The General invited Rainsford to hunt humans with him. The people on the island which The General owned have to play a game of killing each other or being hunted by The General.