Compare And Contrast: The Lottery And First They Came

Compare and Contrast

Have you ever read two poems or short stories and started to compare and contrast them in your head? Well that’s what I’m doing today! “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, and “First They Came,” By Martin Niemoller, are two stories I have recently read and would like to compare and contrast. I believe that what these stories are trying to tell us is to never blindly follow a leader.

Let’s start with “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. In “The Lottery” the story starts off by telling the reader that there is a small town in the suburbs, during summer, June 27. Every year this town has a lottery, however the twist is whoever wins gets rocked to death. The reason why I think that this is a story about blindly following a leader, is because one man set this up to “help crops grow”. Three hundred people gather every year just to kill someone randomly. Also on top off that, the man who held the box you drew from (Mr. Summers) seemed Immune to drawing a card with a black dot on it, which means you die. And in the end a girl named Tessie got rocks thrown at her and died “for the crops”.

On the other hand, “First they Came,” by Martin Niemoller, takes place in WWII When the Nazi’s come and take people who do not approve of them.

The poem says “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist,” then the poem says “Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist, Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew,” then he says “Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me”. The setting of the lottery and first they came are very different because, “The Lottery” takes place in the suburbs and “First they Came” takes place in the big

city.

Never the less they both take place in relatively close timelines, “The Lottery” takes place in 1948 an “First They Came” took place in 1950, They both Have the same theme “don’t blindly follow a leader,” They both came down to the same moment when nobody spoke up for them. In “The Lottery” Tessie, the girl who won the lottery spoke up for herself in the end when she got chosen, she said “This isn’t fair” a lot, but in the end, it wasn’t enough because she still got rocked to death. In “First They Came” after the Nazis captured the Socialists, Trade Unionists, and the Jews, they came and got him because he did not follow the Nazis.

All in all, “The Lottery” and “First They Came” are two stories I have read and I just compared them, and contrasted them. Never blindly follow a leader.