Imagine No Heaven Analysis

As humans we follow certain ideologies passed down through generations, varying in cultures, in the end never knowing a reason of why we pursued them. Whether its imaginative or intangible some rules within beliefs, are put into place based on one particular mindset. As seen in “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson and ‘imagine no heaven”, by Salman Rushdie, rules may be followed very blindly, without second guess, leading to people being scared to speak out when thinking the contrary. Although the stories overall theme is very similar, the differences being that one plays with the idea of religion, while the other frolics with tradition. Through the reading of both “The Lottery”, and “Imagine no heaven”, one can find many similarities, not necessarily

And, now that we are here, how shall we live? Religion was set into place to answer these concerns, sometimes leaving logic out of the picture, as stated within the article, “it has also become plain that every religious story ever told about how we got here is quite simply wrong. This, finally, is what all religions have in common. They didn 't get it right” (Rushdie). Religion is an example of group-thinking, the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility finally it is a way of control via fear. As shown by Jackson in the lottery and expressed in the article “Imagine no heaven”, the following of many of these religions and tradition can cause more damage than good, voiced by Rushdie in pleasant manner as “human history is full of the public oppression wrought by the charioteers of the gods. In the opinion of religious people, however, the private comfort that religion brings more than compensates for the evil done in its name” (Rushdie). The idea of public oppression was displayed by both authors, especially Jackson by inputting the part of Tessie Hutchison where she asked for a redraw and all the town’s people shut her idea down. "I think we ought to start over,