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The Giver By Louis Lowry And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

505 Words3 Pages

Hailey Feldman
Ms. Wald/Mrs. Ruggiero
Language Arts, 7
3/1/23
Did you know that some books have the same theme? In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry people live in a society where they choose what they do with their life. In the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson people follow a tradition of a lottery and being stoned. Therefore, Jackson and Lowry use events to reveal the message that people follow along just for others' approval about it even if it's harmful. Louis Lowry and Shirley Jackson both had the same theme that people do things just for others even if it's hurtful. Jonas watched his father “direct the needle into the top of newchild's forehead, puncturing the place where the fragile skin pulsed. The newborn squirmed, and wailed faintly” (Lowry 149) .When Jonas saw this he was mad that he did not spot the wrong in killing the baby since he was used to it and the government told him to do it for no reason. Also Jonas exclaimed …show more content…

In the short story “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on,everyone”(Jackson). When this is going on people are getting ready to throwing rocks at her scene it is a tradition and others are doing it even though it is inadequate. Also in the short story “ Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 2). At this moment people are collecting rooks to throw at someone. It is a tradition they have been doing even if they don’t actually want to. These quotes proves that people do things for others' approval even if it is unfortunate or

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Imagine living a normal life in a normal town but suddenly, your life has been turned upside down. This is the unfortunate reality for the main characters in The Giver and in “The Lottery”. In The Giver, a Utopian Society chooses a receiver of memory whos job is to handle all of the memories from generations past. In “The Lottery”, a quaint little farming town comes together for a sacrificial ritual to help get a better harvest. Both of the ritualistic styles of life in the Giver by Lois Lowry and in the short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson demonstrate the overall theme of tradition.

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In "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins, the narrators showcase irony through the selected individuals during the selection process. The narrators of both texts used ironic circumstances to choose the "winner" of the selection. In "The Lottery," Ms. Hutchinson, the individual selected to get stoned, had almost missed the selection since she had forgotten the date. Ms.Hutchinson had also blamed Mr. Summers and called the selection unfair. In The Hunger Games, Primrose joined the reaping for the first time, with her name only entered once.

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