Similarities Between The Giver And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Memories and tradition are common things that most people like to follow and learn from. Memories let us look into the past and learn from our mistakes, giving us ideas on how to deal with the present and future. Meanwhile traditions form themselves into a way of life and show people different ways to do things. This is shown in both The Giver, by Lois Lowry and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, when characters use memories or traditions to get around in life.

To start, throughout The Giver, Lois Lowry develops the theme of memories from the past. The memories give Jonas and the Giver knowledge from the past. Since they are the only ones in their community to have the memories, they can have feelings and learn from history, which others can’t. When Jonas starts his training, he is receiving

calm and happy memories. But when he starts learning about other, much worse things in the world, he wonders why people in his community don’t understand right from wrong. In the end, Jonas and the Giver start a mission to bring memories back to the entire community, so that they can witness destruction and pain and then learn from it to make the community a better place. Throughout the book, the Giver makes Jonas understand that “‘They can't help it. They know nothing’...‘It's what he was told to do, and he knows nothing else,’” (153). This helps Jonas realize that without the memories, people are helpless and can’t determine what is wrong without looking at past history.

In addition, Shirley Jackson develops the theme of tradition in “The Lottery.” This is shown when the entire village shows and participates in the annual lottery.

During this time, everyone is tense, and at first, people follow the tradition and choose slips of paper. However, when the Hutchinson family gets chosen for the lottery, they become anxious. This further establishes the theme of tradition, because when Mrs. Hutchinson learns that she got chosen, she starts arguing and getting mad, saying that it’s not fair. Despite the fact that many villagers would rather do without the lottery, many older villagers think that it is a proper tradition that shouldn’t be discontinued. Old Man Warner, a villager who has been doing the lottery for 77 years, always encourages the lottery and thinks anyone who doesn’t is a fool. “‘Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,’” he says. “First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery,’” [30]. This explains that since there has been a lottery for so long, people don’t want to give it up and stop, because they believe that they wouldn’t get a good harvest if they

did.

As you can see, both The Giver, by Lois Lowry and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, use the themes of memories or traditions. While memories help us attain wisdom, traditions kind of define our way of life. Learning from memories and traditions could take a while, but the knowledge you can acquire could be endless.