Similarities Between The Hunger Games And The Lottery

Tradition is done by many around the world and depending on where you are from tradition can be good or bad. In the stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, we are presented with a similar tradition but a very different atmosphere around the people and the setting of said tradition. In this literary analysis essay we will look at the different atmosphere presented around the form of selection process that is shown in both stories and how this atmosphere can change the view of the reader.

First off, the authors of both stories introduce some sort of tradition that must be carried out, for both of the stories it is a selection process. During this time the entire community gets together in the

In “The Lottery” the people seem clueless about what wining the lottery actually means. They don't seem to understand that it is something that leads to death in fact they seem to be helping the process by collecting sones, “Booby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;” (Jackson, 92). The children in this story are collecting stones which will be used to kill the one selected and yet there seems to be no fear of possibly be the one chosen or fear of what comes for the chosen one in a sense that seem happy on this day. In goes on to say “Soon the men began to gather…their jokes were quiet and and they smiled…The women…came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip” (Jackson, 92). The citizen don’t seem to understand the horror of what they are gathering for. They are telling jokes and gossiping about others as if they don’t know that one of them could possibly be killed in a matter of minutes. In “The Hunger Games” the feeling that the citizens present is very different, “People file in silently and sign in…Family members line up around the perimeter, holding tightly to one another’s hands…they will break down and weep.” (Collins, 16-17). These people are scared they know what is coming, it goes on to say “he reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two.” (Collins, 19). In the span of seventy-four years only having to people win at this crazy game doesn’t give much hope to those selected or their families. People are scared for themselves and for their loved ones this is clear in the way the other describes the scene. There is silence and fear, there is no one laughing and playing around they know what is coming. In both stories the way in which the people act about the traditions shows