Aashini Desai Ms. Wald & Mrs. Ruggiero Language Arts Period 8 1 March 2023 In 1692, 25 people died in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, an example of how mob mentality can affect people. The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and the short story, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, are two novels that show how communities can become if they don’t question their traditions. Mob mentality and the want to follow others’ actions can lead to oppression and harm. The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, shows how communities can become if they don’t question their traditions by adding information on how people are used to their oppression. When The Giver talks about his pain from memories, Jonas says, “‘But you have to suffer like that all the time,’ . …show more content…
When Tessie Hutchinson is chosen for The Lottery and people are ready to throw stones at her, “And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles” (Lowry 10). Davy Hutchinson is Tessie’s own son, and he is being taught to include himself in the process of killing her. Looking from a modern point-of-view, one would think that this is an atrocious tradition, but the villagers in the story don’t think it is cruel at all. This is since everyone takes part in it, and even though it is as horrible as stoning someone to death people are willing to do it if everyone else is. When she is about to be killed, Mrs. Hutchinson screams, “‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ . . .and then they were upon her” (Lowry 11). Mrs. Hutchinson’s protest proves to readers that in this situation, people are likely to complain only if they are the ones being harmed. It is to be noted that Tessie is complaining that it isn’t fair as she is claiming that the lottery process wasn’t fair, but not that the lottery itself isn’t fair. This shows that the only person who questions the tradition questions it since they are being harmed by it themselves, but in order to eliminate dangerous traditions, people need to think twice about practices that are unfair. As you can glimpse, “The