Similarities Between The Lottery And The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

According to Martin Luther King Jr, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; The tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” The Lottery and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas are two very accurate depictions of this quote. Both gained popularity through their surprising endings that leave the reader speechless. The Lottery tells the tale of a small village. Once every year (June 27th), each citizen of the village must draw from a box a slip of paper. If one’s paper has a black dot on it, the “lottery” is then repeated in that individual’s family. Whoever draws the slip with the black dot on it this time is stoned to death

In both stories, a single person is sacrificed for the greater good of the society. In The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is the one sacrificed. In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the unnamed boy is the sacrifice. Also, both stories sacrifice’s do not have a say in their self-offering. Tessie Hutchens just happened to be the unfortunate person with the dotted paper. In Omelas, the unnamed boy was chosen by complete random. The social contracts of both stories clearly

The village of The Lottery clearly has their sacrifice for something related with the amount of food needed to support the community. Old Man Warner stated, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. First thing you know, we’d be all eating stewed chickweed and acorns.” If this village needs to sacrifice someone in the name of food, it is highly likely the communities of The Lottery suffered through an extreme famine. In Omelas, the motive for sacrifice is the happiness of its people. Being a utopian society, the sacrifice of the child equates to a thriving society with zero despair. If Omelas is willing to enslave a child for its entire life for the happiness of others, one can only assume there was a time in Omelas past of extreme