Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck, demonstrates an ideal community with the portrayal of the characters in the novel: Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, Big Joe, and The Pirate, who named themselves as the Paisano.The journey of the characters who have never given up on one another disregarding the circumstances are depicted in the novel. The men have a firm stand towards their tradition and stay faithful to their friendship by trusting each other. When one committed evil acts, they would punish the man while managing to forgive him. Through the allegiance and faithfulness in their friendship, the men successfully formed an ideal community where they feel safe and comfortable while relying on each other. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, instead, describes a corrupted community where villagers conform to their cruel tradition blindly, leading to a villager, Tessie Hutchinson’s death. The villagers are selfish and careless, attributing to their deep faith to their murderous tradition - the lottery. The annual lottery is a system that eliminates one villager each year by drawing from a black box. The villagers along with her husband betray Tessie Hutchinson who claims the drawing is unfair and asks for a redraw. Tessie, however, is never forgiven in the lottery and forced to be murdered horrifyingly by the crowd.