Omelas Vs Lottery

In the two short stories, “The Lottery”by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Who walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin,the recurring motif of sacrifice is used to explain the plight for which each society deals on a daily basis, being that sacrifice is viewed as more or less as an occupational hazard than anything. Even though the ideas of sacrifice are present in each respective story, the ways for which they face the morally dubious action of taking a life differ in various ways. Such as the way “the lottery” is something more selfless in nature and deals with random selection process. “Omelas” on the other hand is more grounded in selfish behavior of the people and is spread by peer pressure that is written off by the elders of the community

Now that is where the similarities begin, this being exemplified in both passages. This acts as the overarching framework of both cautionary tales.“The lottery” has various relics and rites that they use to conduct their selection for the sacrifice, one being a black box used to pick for the offering. People are so jaded to the process that the act of proposing a new box is even a taboo subject,” Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as it was represented by the black box”(1). the use of the box is to keep from the creation of a minority pool of people that would be pulled to be a sacrifice, making the selection process fair and is used to guarantee agriculture growth for the community. In “Omelas” similar to “the lottery” the choice for sacrifice was as well random, also sacrifice is done to guarantee agriculture success. Because of this the people of Omelas like the people of “The lottery” they as well are jaded to what happen to the people or person who makes the sacrifice to keep the utopia afloat, “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas” (3).unlike “Omelas”, “the lottery” is told to be an isolated case and many in the surrounding area view it as an old practice and do not do it anymore, while Omelas everyone there survives and lives by the practice to the T. “The lottery” believes in fair random selection through ballots whilst the information given about the picking of the child is very vague in Omelas. Last point to make is, though both do it to appease a higher power for prosperity, “Omelas” vague policies had no loop holes and is followed by everybody who wish to stay in Omelas,but for the people in “The Lottery” they could simply fake an Injury and or not participated