What Are The Similarities Between 1984 And The Lottery

George Orwell’s 1984 and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery both take place in two different scenarios of human civilization. George Orwell’s story depicts the distressful life of a rebellious and aware ruling-class member fighting a world of totalitarianism and lies while Jackson tells the story of a dark ritual born from an isolated rustic life. While the plots may differ, the theme of both stories ask the question: how can somebody be capable of this? Both stories show how the indoctrination of children into a malevolent culture enable the inability of individuals to apply logical thought which allows two antipodal civilizations to commit atrocity.

One integral role that perpetuates the dark acts in these stories is derived from the indoctrination

of culture. While as adults, we may think to always question things, a kid may not. The way people learn how to be who they are is through the influences given to them throughout life. Children are a blank slate for accepting information from their environment. Therefore, by constantly maintaining the influences of kids through the adults they learn by, one is able to control and empower the generations to repeat and maintain.
It must be said that kids are inclined to be naturally evil. They are capable of justifying the, sometimes wretched, thoughts they have because of their inexperience with empathy. In The Lottery, children can barely wait to smash their fellow villager’s head in (Jackson, 396). They were so quick to bypass their feelings of terror and effortlessly allied with their worst fears (394). It’s these veracious beliefs that kids can contain which allow them to embody wrongful ideas where future reinforcement ensures the cycle continues.
When indoctrinated kids become adults, the cycle of fallacies perpetuates. In 1984, when Mr. Parsons is locked into the torturous Ministry of Love, he tells Winston “It was my little daughter…. She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don’t bear her any grudge for it. In fact I’m proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway” (Orwell 233). Parsons daughter is incapable of recognizing the harm she will cause to her own father. The act of generational reinforcement enables the radicalization, or acceptance of radical thoughts, of kids. It’s this system that nearly allow Mr. Parson’s own kid to get him killed.
Throughout 1984, fear and pain are used to control the suspicious adults while the impressionable kids are controlled with fervor. Mr. Parsons’ kids once again serve as a staunch example of how controlling, rambunctious, and impressionable kids can produce such radical beliefs that can be seemingly justified by self-cerebration (23). The Parson’s children randomly, although rightfully, accuse their fellow neighbor Winston of being a mere “thought-criminal” (Orwell 23). But in this scene, the nine-year-old boy holds Winston at fake-gun point, and goes about his interrogation with such a, “…vicious demeanor, that it was not altogether a game” (23). The kids are so brainwashed that they say with such a light breath threats such as, “I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!” (23). The stimulus that triggered this apparent stickup, which disappointing the kids oh-so-greatly, was the monthly hanging at the neighborhood park of criminals; an event that “… children always clamored to be taken to see…” (23). The children’s morals of compassion, care, and understanding get completely extracted in the attempt to mold them into a weapon.
The child’s source of psychological manipulation comes directly from the government’s involvement with the Youth League and the Spies (21). By directly controlling the children with such extensive programs, they can effectively inculcate kids into watch-dog systems for parental loyalty (24). As Winston proclaims, “…What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations…. [the kids] were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced tin them no tendency whatever to rebel against the party… They adored the Party and everything connected with it” (24). The impressionability of children and lack of experience and guidance allow the kids to be controlled in a way where they are not even aware that what they could be doing is wrong. Therefore, what happens is all their ferocity gets turned outwards against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, or in the earlier example, thought-criminals (24). It is this authoritarian weaponization of children that allow them to become the terrorizing menace all throughout 1984’s world.
While the children are an integral part of the atrocities throughout 1984, in The Lottery, children exhibit less social manipulation but are instead softly reinforced to enthusiastically participate in their societal atrocity. While there is no totalitarian regime radicalizing the kids with programs, the children in The Lottery learn from their peers. They’re engrossed in a tightknit tradition that’s supersedes their upbringing for generations (The Lottery 390). This is apparent as even the adults whom are actively threatened by their self-massacre, did not, “… like to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (391). By living a life where everyone is invested into the tradition, and respects it, they set the example for future generations.
Another key aspect fueling the horrid acts committed is how the act of selection and statistics creates an environment where the old are believed to be rewarded, and in turn promote the tradition for the future.

When selecting notes, one can notice that the adults all seem spiteful towards people trying to avoid the system that they believe permits them viable harvests (394). This is because their criticism is reinforced by a decreased probability of selection which can then be self-justified as a false belief that they will benefit from their sacrifice (394). And, as the people get older, they accrue resentment toward younger people due to the fact that it was them that took the statistical sacrifice for so many years. Old Man Warner subtly terrorizes the village with threats that civilization will turn back to the caveman era in the absence of the lottery (393). When other village people address the thought that the lottery may actually be useless, he harshly rejects these thoughts either through his own self-reinforced spite against future generations having it better than he did, or through a less likely adamant belief of the tradition (393). Either way, the village is perpetually stuck in a cycle where the older people in the village refuse to allow the tradition to be questioned or removed, and thus enable the stoning to partake and be ingrained in future

generations.
In The Lottery, the impressionable children take note of their peers and being to mimic their actions and beliefs. While the children’s perception of death may not be to fruition, they have learned quickly the good and ugly side of it. During selection the kids express the distress found in playing ‘pick-a-card’ for their own death (392). However, overall, they always get rewarded by seeing the subtle enjoyment everyone gets in the festivities after the drawing (395). As soon as the drawing ends, the stones are ready (396). All around them they see their peers trying to find the biggest and most malicious stone possible to do their deed; all of them encircling and entrapping their neighbor turned to statistical prey (396). Through the villagers’ actions, they imprint the younger generation to embrace the tradition that they seem to be momentarily enjoying, despite the savage attack on their folk and the reward it does not bring.

Throughout 1984 and The Lottery children play the victim in part with their crimes. They get robbed of a healthy understanding in values that could prevent the terrible things that occur. These two stories also show a parallel to real world problems such as the Nazi Germany’s control of the youth and use of propaganda to commit atrocity. But while both stories show two different ways of impressing the youth, they each show how the impression of youth is vital to suppressing the realization of their actions throughout life.