Compare And Contrast The Lottery And First They Came

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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller share a similar theme that relates to some world problems.. “The Lottery” is a short story about a small town where a lottery is held, and wining is technically losing. “First They Came” is a short poem where the author is trapped in a concentration camp where he is unable to stand up for a group and therefore no one will stand up for him, he is regretful of this decision. Both stories share the concept of “Standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest path.” Although they share the same message, they convey it in different ways. It can be compared and contrasted but in the end, they show the same central idea.


In general, as the story of “The Lottery” develops, you will see that wining is not a good thing, and this conveys the idea of the theme, “Standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest path,” differently than “Then They Came.” In the story, the main character, Tessie, tries to stand up for herself, but ended up getting herself killed. This shows that even when you’re standing up for what is fair, they can’t be supported in a just way. To add on, the whole town disagreed and turned on …show more content…

In both stories there is no technical “win.” As both main characters either stand up or not stand up, both of them ending up having a loss of a life, rather than a gain. Throughout the stories, no one supports each other during the main events or executions. This just shows even if you were to stand up, no one would have your back as no one would support their peers. Besides the current theme, justice and indifference is also shown in both stories. As the narrators both chose to stand out, both didn’t gain anything from it and shows once more “Standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest

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