Similarities Between The Lottery And Harrison Bergeron

The two short stories The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron are similar themes because they both question status quo and the tolerance of counterproductive social practices for the sake of obedience. In “The Lottery” there is a village that is blinded that they have maintained an old practice without even questioning its purpose or its rationale. The practice is there is only one winner of the lottery and that person is stoned to death. In “Harrison Bergeron” they want to be so equal that they make everyone wear handicaps so that no one can be stronger, smarter, or prettier than anyone else. The conditions are both cruel and senseless. Both these stories share similar aspects. In both the stories you see that these traditions lead to rebellion or

In
‘The Harrison Bergeron” Harrison breaks out of his handicaps to become the ruler of humanity. In “The Lottery” Tessie does something similar to what Harrison did in “The Lottery”. Even though these stories are similar they do have some differences In “The Lottery” it is in a small rural town and it is in the past, but “Harrison Bergeron” is in a big city in 2081. Both of the stories are meant to say not everything has to be the same and not every tradition needs to be kept. Harrison was only trying to make a difference to help his community but instead he was punished and killed. The Lottery is killing off people for a tradition that no one knows why they keep, they just feel the needs to do it because it is a tradition and don’t want to change. The stories are similar because there is someone in each story who is trying to put an end to these horrible rules that is only harming them more in their society. The longer they keep these traditions and rules the longer people will break the and try to stop them, but by the time they can put and end to it they will kill or harm half of their community.