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

Some people say, ''For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on peoples love and concern for each other'' (Millard Fuller), but not everyone worries about each other, they just focus on themselves and how they can prosper in life. There are people who only care for themselves in stories like, ''The Lottery'' and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'' and what is needed for them to prosper in life and to be happy throughout their life time. The community in ''The Lottery'' gather one day of the year to participate in the tradition that has been around for years which will help the families prosper, except for one. In the Community of Omelas the people are always happy and busy with all the festival and celebrations that take place,

except for one miserable child who is hidden from all communication underground in a dark, small room. In these stories, tradition is an important role in the community that the two authors explore because without tradition, the people can't live a normal life.
In the story of ''The Lottery'', the community depends on a tradition for blessings on a good year of crops for each individual and happiness.

But without doing the tradition, none of that would be brought to the community. After waiting a year, ''Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smile rather than laughed'' (Shirley Jackson). But for any of this to happen one family had to suffer a loss, and this time ''Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her.'' It isn't fair''. A stone hit her on the side of the head'' (Shirley Jackson). The family that drew the piece of paper out of the box with a dot in the center had to put the paper back in and that family would draw again only this time with all of the family members. The person chosen would be sacrificed by everyone in the community throwing stones at them until they were dead. This was the only way the community thought they would have a good year of

crops.
While one community follows one tradition, there are other communities who have other traditions as well.

In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", "The youths and girls have mounted their horses and are beginning to group around the starting line of the course. An old woman, small, fat, and laughing is passing out flowers from a basket, and tall young men wear her flowers in their shining hair. A child of nine or ten sits at the end of the crowd, alone, Playing on a wooden flute. People pause to listen, and they smile," (Ursula K. Le Guin). None of this would be happening if one person is suffering, "Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendship, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery", (Ursula K. Le Guin). The people who are born with defects are taken away from everyone else, and hidden in an underground room under a beautiful public building. In this case, the boy/girl who was 13 is put in that dark room and is tortured because of the way he/she looks. He/she is given very little food while everyone who is born well and healthy is above having a festival. Some people have come down to see the poor child, but left the city afterwards thinking about what they

saw.
These traditions impact the community in many ways, and bring joy and happiness as well. But there are differences in both traditions, for example, gathering and none gathering. In "The Lottery" people gather around the town square where all the events of the town happen, then the people draw from the black box in the center to sacrifice a person. In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" there are people who take away the children who were born defective and put them away from everyone else instead of gathering and sacrificing him/her for the joy of the town. No one goes down to see the kids that are put away, just when they go and put food for him/her. So what, is that all they do? People who take the child food never speak to him/her either.
Tradition cannot be left out of a community in order for people to prosper in life. Without sacrificing someone or punishing a child for how they look on the outside, then no one is okay or will not be happy. If these traditions end, how will the community move on? The kids will not play around and pile stones in the corners of the events and there will be no judging on how people look or think. The communities will not be the same without the traditions. No one will have good crops or happiness.