Theme Of Trust In The Hunger Games And The Lottery

In the story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, residents of a New England village gather in a square between the post office and the bank in the morning of June 27th for the annual lottery. The lottery is a ritual tradition that the villagers follow yearly consisting the same old rules that have only been changed. The year’s winner of the lottery is a lady named, Tessie Hutchinson, the prize she earns is unbelievable. Theme and symbolism are used in story to make the irony of the story more intense, by making the prize for the lottery unforeseen to the reader. The themes of this short story include the following, the danger of blindly following tradition and the randomness of persecution.

“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).

Effie Trinket was the representative for District 12. Everyone from their district gathered to see who would be participating in the 74th annual Hunger Games. On the other hand, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson differs in the selection process. During the drawing the narrator stated, “It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office.” (Jackson 7). In “The Lottery”, Mr. Summers does not plan it in advanced, he wants to do as little as possible with the lottery, so he waited until the last minute to draw the black dot.

She throws a fit and tries to refuse it and blame others. Likewise, Katniss seems to be making fun of the popular slogan of the Hunger Games: “May the odds be ever in your favor.” Obviously the odds are not in anyone’s favor because at the end of the day the tributes are either going to die or they are going to kill everyone else and have to live with the memories for the rest of their lives. Their is no real winner in that situation, yet the Capital makes it seem like a fun game, the Hunger “Games”. Capital children are mocking it because they know they never have to live it. According to Maria Magher, “The people of District 12 suffer daily from hunger and poverty.

Collins. Elizabeth took an opportunity of thanking her. 'It keeps him in good humour,' said she, 'and I am more obliged to you than I can express.' Charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful, and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time. This was very amiable, but Charlotte's kindness extended farther than Elizabeth had any conception of; its object was nothing else than to secure her from any return of Mr. Collins's addresses, by engaging them towards herself.

But this village has this really weird tradition. This tradition is based on a lottery. There would be this lottery and every family has their name on it by force since it is a tradition and the family that gets picked would have to do another lottery to see which one in the family dies. To know which person in the family dies every person in the family gets a paper and the paper with the black dot dash. In the lottery someone picks out a family name and the family name that year was the Hutchinsons.

Many themes could be interpreted throughout the “The Lottery”. While Shirley Jackson is writing “The Lottery”, she gives a good theme of tradition. Throughout the whole story she explains the little events the people of the village do once a year, the day the lottery takes place. The villagers take tradition so far when it is time for the lottery because they have done the event so long they see nothing wrong with it. The lottery is taking someone’s life away because that person drew a black dot.

This relates to the theme of jealousy because Mr. Putnam is so jealous of other people’s land that he accuses them of witchcraft so they lose their belongings, and he can take it. In addition, Ann Putnam is Very jealous of Rebecca Nurse. Ann Putnam thinks she is cured because she has lost so many children and Rebecca Nurse has so many. Mrs. Putnam is telling the jury “You think it God’s work you should never lose a child, nor a grandchild either, and I burry all but one?” (Miller, 152) Ann is so jealous that she accuses goody nurse of witchcraft because she thinks Mrs. Putnam put a spell on her not to have kids. Mr. Putnam later says “When Reverend Hale comes; you will proceed to look for signs of witchcraft here.” (Miller, 152) As Arthur Miller reminded you, you can see jealousy is one of the worst emotions out there bringing the worst out of people?

She was known for her more popular short stories such as; “The Lottery”, “Life Among Savages”, and “Hangsam”. Shirley Jackson wrote the lottery on a warm June day and only took two hours. Although many people hated it, and were very confused she never offered an explanation about what the deep meaning was. The short story “The Lottery,” is based in a small village in England. Once a year a so called “Lottery” is held, where one person will be stoned to death.

Mrs. Delacroix was sprinting towards her with the greatest stone she could find, energetic to have the chance to butcher one who, essentially the day going before, she would have called sidekick. As disturbing as this may be, it is not about as startling as the foul play among relatives. Obviously these families had no warmth for each other. On the other hand possibly, they saw each other basically as pawns which would diminish the likelihood of their being picked at the lottery. Mr. Hutchinson's last words to his significant other were " “Shut up, Tessie Mrs. Hutchinson, when she sees the probability of herself being picked, rapidly tries to decline her chances by asking that her married young lady pick moreover.