Similarities Between The Lottery And The Crucible

There are times when people become bystanders to events they know isn't moral, but let it happen because it isn't affecting them directly. This is true in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, which is a short story about a town with an annual tradition that results in a person being stoned, yet no one tries to stop the tradition. Similarly, in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls are scared of being accused of witchcraft, so they falsely accuse others of doing so, and others believe them without question. In both writings, we see the communities doing inhuman acts influenced by those in power, actions being justified because they were done to protect the populace, and lastly tradition blinding people from seeing the true effect of

In The Crucible, Abigail is portrayed as the leader of the girls that are falsely accusing people in the town of witchcraft. Abigail commands the other girls, “let anyone breathe a word...and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring with me a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (14). Abigail is able to use the fear of the other girls to manipulate them in acting along with her lie. In “The Lottery”, Old Man Warner has the power to influence the way those in the community view the tradition. Old Man Warner is the oldest person in the community, “Seventy-seventh years I been in the Lottery,” (298). He is the only one who truly remembers the customs of the tradition so everyone blindly follows what he

The community continues to have the mindset of those who started the tradition. Those in the community are blinded by the idea that stoning people is acceptable because it's what Old Man Warner has told them has always been done, “There’s always been a lottery,” (197). Since the community has been told that the lottery has always been a tradition, they don’t question the effects. They don’t question the action being done because tradition is a part of what molds a person. Questioning it would mean they would have to change, people don't like change. Likewise, the community in The Crucible, are blinded by the tradition of believing that anything that is not in the bible or thought of as religiously good, was automatically related to Satan. Because of the fear people had for Satan, they were easily tricked by the girls into believing anyone they picked on were associated with witchcraft, “ Oh, stop hurting me, Goody Osburn! Help me, Judge Danforth!” (35). It's easy for them to hang innocent people because the tradition is to hang witches. They justify their actions without doubt because it is considered