A Comparison of the Lottery and the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelasa

Categories: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

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The concept that it is understandable for one person to suffer for the benefit of others has been the subject of many books and stories. Like The Lotterya by Shirley Jackson where a assembly is made yearly and a lotteiy is drawn to pick the villager who is going to get stoned to death by the other; and adiau The Ones Who WaIk Away from Omelasauaiu by Ursula K. Le Guin where In order for the town of Omelas to live happy and prosper a little boy has to live unhappy locked in a broom closet.

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The same theme is used in both short stories, but the differences could easily be explained by looking at the authoréﬂts lives. you have two people with two different backgrounds and most likely very dissimilar points of view on social matters The cruelty of what happens to each victim of these stories varies by the way the authors were treated themselves In their community.

In The Lottery, the Victim is stoned death by neighbours and people that know her without even knowing the meaning of it all, just like the people in Jacksonél'liis life rejecting her and calling her a witch and denigrated her work because they didnaﬂlt understand it, she has seen a lot of harshness and she is more able to express it in her work. In Omelas, People do not do anything to the boy and they all know why he must stay where he is. It is still a distressing thought but considering the seemingly kind hearted and very well liked Le Guin she couldniut really do anything worst to the boy, she did not know how or simply felt too sympathetic towards him.

Although both authors have experienced different social lives; in both towns. people still accept the scapegoat. only minor moral details diverge. In the beginning of both stories all of the Inhabitants are happy. in Omelas, you have a boy playing some music, kids playing outside. in amamhe Lottery you have boys running around gathering rocks and talking about school.

Everyone just goes about their usual occupations, their usual jokes, while in Omelas they know the little boy is in the broom closet not fed and in bad condition and in The Lottery they know that by the end of the morning one of their friends or their family member is going to get stoned to death and in neither case anyone does anything to help. In Omelas at least some people after actually seeing what happens to the boy leave and never come back while the people from the lottery just stay in that town. Even the literary genres show another difference between Jackson and Le Guin.

In The Lonery the author decided to play a lot with foreshadowing to build suspense so you just knew from the beginning that the story was going to be a dramatic one which is In complete contrast to the fairy tale like tone of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

Also, Jackson chose the 3rd person objective for her narrator which gives you a more restricted view of the story, like she does not want us close to the characters and Le Guin opted for the lst and 3rd person Omniscient which makes you feel implicated in the story like the narrator is close to you, talking to you. There are always going to be believers of the scapegoat advantages but depending on how you were raised, the people you see and where you live. you are going to react and think differently about it like these two completely opposite authors and theirs characters did.