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What Are The Similarities Between The Lottery And Good Country People

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Victoria Lorick Professor Mantz ENGL – 1302 – 72Z February 19, 2023 The Lottery and Good Country People(16) "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor are two different short stories that share some similarities, but also have distinct differences. Both stories deal with themes of deception, morality, and the dangers of blindly following traditions or beliefs. In "The Lottery," the villagers blindly follow the tradition of the lottery without questioning its morality or purpose. In "Good Country People," the protagonist, Hulga, blindly believes that she is intellectually superior to everyone else and is ultimately deceived by a seemingly "good country" Bible salesman. The characters in both stories also …show more content…

The lottery is conducted by Mr. Summers, who manages several civic activities in the village. At this point, it is still not entirely clear what the lottery is or what the villages get from the lottery. The title is quite deceptive because it leads readers to believe there is some sort of prize or a game of chance, where the winner would receive some sort of prize or reward. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the lottery is not a game at all, but a ritual in which one member of the community is selected at random and then stoned to death by the other members. Another similarity is that both stories have surprise endings that shock the reader. In "The Lottery," the winner of the lottery is stoned to death, which is unexpected and shocking. In "Good Country People," Hulga is deceived by the Bible salesman, who steals her prosthetic leg and leaves her stranded in a barn. However, the two stories also have distinct differences. "The Lottery" is more of a social commentary on the dangers of tradition and conformity, while "Good Country People" is a character study of a protagonist who believes she is superior to others but is ultimately humbled by her own …show more content…

Hulga is skeptical and believes she is superior to everyone else around her. One day, a seemingly innocent and naive Bible salesman named Manley Pointer comes to visit Hulga and her mother. Hulga is initially skeptical of Manley, but he manages to gain her trust and invites her on a walk. They end up in a secluded barn, where Manley reveals his true intentions and steals Hulga's wooden leg, leaving her stranded. The reason why Manley wants Hulga's leg is not explicitly stated in the story, but it can be interpreted as a metaphor for his desire to take away her power and control. Hulga, with her intellect and education, sees herself as superior to others, but her wooden leg is a constant reminder of her physical vulnerability and limitations. By taking away her leg, Manley takes away her power and control, leaving her completely vulnerable and at his mercy. It is also possible that Manley steals Hulga's leg as a symbolic act of revenge against her for her condescending attitude and lack of

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The artificial leg that Hulga “was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail” symbolizes her vulnerability and her dependence on things despite what she may think, but from this it would be nearly impossible to guess that Manley was

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Both the stories depict the theme of the dangers of blindly following traditions as it can lead to the demise if innocent people. In both stories, the townspeople aimlessly follow their annual traditions because they are accustomed to the event. In “The Lottery”, Mr. Adams

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The two short stories The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron are similar themes because they both question status quo and the tolerance of counterproductive social practices for the sake of obedience. In “The Lottery” there is a village that is blinded that they have maintained an old practice without even questioning its purpose or its rationale. The practice is there is only one winner of the lottery and that person is stoned to death. In “Harrison Bergeron” they want to be so equal that they make everyone wear handicaps so that no one can be stronger, smarter, or prettier than anyone else. The conditions are both cruel and senseless.

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To Hulga's surprise Manley had ulterior motives; he decides to steal her wooden leg. When she tries to retrieve the leg from him, he easily pushes her down, this leaving her feeling more handicap and more vulnerable than ever. Her reaction to him is not only outrage she’s embarrassed and feels completely violated. Physically vulnerable, she mumbled, "You're a fine Christian! You're just like them all — say one thing and do another..."

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The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron, both share common themes and differences in their stories. One would be that both societies claim theses “traditions give them unity and equality”. Another theme commonly shared is both stories show how people can be blind to tradition. Although these stories are similar they have their differences one being Harrison Bergeron tried dyeing like a martyr while Ms. Hutchinson died trying to save her own life. In both of theses stories society believes that their barbaric traditions bring them equality and unity.

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Hulga is presented as a child by the way she is dressed, and this helps to demonstrate her lack of reality of the evil in others that are supposed to be "good country people." Hulga is vunerable and is allured into the sweet talk of Pointer, her pride leads her to lose the most precious thing she owns, her wooden leg. Her pride disables her from seeing the reality and is left on the floor unable to move. At the end Pointer tells her the truth, but she still remains ignorant and does not accept the fact that she was manipulated when it was her plan to seduce

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The Lottery is a short story about a town of people that will crowd and all the men will get a slip of paper all the paper is blank… besides one and that one has a black dot, so a lucky person will get it and if they have a kid older than 16 they have play this game, anyway the winner will get a “prize”. The Lottery story and The Lottery movie have many things that were different. The Lottery story is different from The Lottery movie by where it is located and where the event took place, such as in the story they were sacrificing someone in a large field while in the movie they were stopped by the building. If they didn’t have the building in the way she could have lived longer while if they did she would have died sooner.

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Sometimes we don’t even know what the tradition is about because it is so old but we practice it anyways. Both Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery have different themes, but they are about the same topic. They are both about tradition. The authors use these fictional stories to help convey their point of view. In Harrison Bergeron the author, Kurt Vonnegut, shows that he feels tradition is right and society should follow

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It is not until the very end of the story that readers are shown the true character of Manley Pointer. It is possible that the motive for stealing Hulga’s leg is that Mrs. Freeman hired the Bible salesman to steal the artificial leg from her. “Something about her seemed to fascinate Mrs. Freeman and then one day Hulga realized that it was the artificial leg” (O’connor 436). It is interesting that

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There are vast similarities, differences and irony between the two short stories Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Both regarded as classic stories that display how individuals are affected by society and the higher powers at be. Both "Harrison" and "The Lottery" describe situations in which individuals blindly participate in traditions for fear of consequence. They both share a likeness in theme, distinctly in terms of questioning the Status Quo, and the tolerance of counterproductive social practices for the sake of obedience. There is also a likeness in that both stories show two very resembling societies that aim to allege their unity through accustomed practices that induce more solicitude than to lead towards change.

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“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

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“...The hunting accident...the leg had been literally blasted off” (O’Connor 484), this sentence mentioned by the author symbolizes Hulga’s personality, because when something very valuable is taken away from someone and they are aware of it, but are not able to react to it, it could change a person drastically. Hulga could have been a totally different women if she had her leg, that’s why the author decided to give her a wooden leg. In the story the author mentions how Hulga does not care about her appearance at all. When she goes on a date with Manley Pointer she wears a dirty white shirt, applies Vapex as perfume, and never smiles. “...

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