Similarities Between The Lottery And Harrison Bergeron

In most democratic societies, the government's main job is to protect their society and do everything they can to keep their citizens safe and happy. But in “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Lottery,” the government tries to keep the citizens uncomfortable and unsafe. Although in a sense they are also trying to do what's best for the individual and the community. In “The Lottery,” the government encourages the act of stoning an innocent person for the sake of tradition and in “Harrison Bergeron,” the government puts on handicaps to keep their citizens dumbed down and powerless. It seems that the only reason for this is the presents of thoughtless tradition. In both “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the

Jackson used the symbol of the black box and just the black dot on the paper to represent the simple concept that no one thinks twice about tradition and to show that tradition is a large part of the community. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the author uses the symbol of the handicaps to represent the weight and the inability to think for oneself and question tradition but again the author shows that in the end, you have to actually think about if the tradition even makes sense. The black box comes up a lot in the Lottery because the author really wanted to stress the use of symbol. The author writes “carrying the black wooden box” and “represented by the black box”. The black box is trying to portray tradition. The author even mentions that “Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” The society didn't want to change boxes for the sole reason of the tradition. This symbol and many others can point to one theme, that traditions don't make sense unless you stop to think about them. This theme is also shown in Harrison Bergeron when the author write about the symbol of the handicaps and how the weight of the handicaps prevent anyone from thinking about the traditions so they just go along with it. But both stories

The use of dialogue shows the simplicity of the sentences or complexity. The dialogue also shows either a lot emotion in the dialogue or the exact opposite with almost no emotion. When Harrison is speaking, he is talking all about how traditions needs to be taught about and that the society should change his way. He is trying to teach the theme himself through dialogue towards the ballerinas and on tv. In “The Lottery” the author used a limited amount of meaningful dialogue and instead expresses the theme through the signposts again and again as well as contrast and contradiction. “The Lottery” mentions the black box, tradition and being nervous so much that the reader can't help but realize that that tradition is important in their community. The author uses contrast and contradiction in the story to also show that in the beginning Tessie didn't really think twice about tradition but in the end when she was in the position herself, people close to her began only then realizing that following blindly should not be the reason that you are keeping a