What Are The Similarities Between A & P And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

John Updike’s “A&P” and Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery” are opposites to one another when talking about the topic of conformity. In “The Lottery” the characters have no problem with conforming, while in “A&P” Sammy has a problem with conforming to a corporate system. In “The Lottery” the villagers blindly follow a barbaric tradition in their village. Essentially everyone in the village participates in a lottery, and the winner of this lottery is stoned to death by the other villagers. The reason why the villagers follow the lottery is because the lottery has essentially been around longer than everyone in the village. So the villagers are just following their custom blindly because others did before them. Shirley Jackson even states that the villagers don’t really know much about the origins of the lottery but they preserve the tradition. It is also stated that the other traditions that use

Sammy even at the beginning of the story you learn that he doesn’t think as himself as a follower or a sheep. Sammy doesn’t consider himself to be like his fellow co-workers Lengel and Stokeise who follow the guidelines of this corporation. Sammy begins to change when these three girls with bathing suits walk into the store. The presence of the girl’s cause Sammy to make an error at the register. The girls wearing bathing suits make Sammy think about the defiance of the norm. Sammy is normally downplaying rules in a sarcastic manner while these girls completely ignore these rules they don’t wish to follow. Sammy after witnessing the girl’s rebellion against social norm he decides he doesn’t want to become sheep like his fellow co-work Lengel, so Sammy ends up quitting. Sammy in his mind must do this in order to maintain his own integrity. Sammy does acknowledge the fact things will get harder because people like his co-workers who conform to society will have power over