The Lottery vs. The Hunger Games (Thematic Comparison)

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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins both demonstrate that blindly following society’s traditions and rituals lead to disastrous consequences.

Both stories show how people begin to ignore their own morals and can no longer distinguish the difference between right and wrong.

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This is evident in The Lottery where society has held the tradition of hosting a town event which results in someone being stoned to death. “A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, ‘Come on, come on, everyone.’” illustrates how the townspeople have gotten so caught up in complying with the tradition that they have put aside their own morals. Murdering an innocent human being is undeniably wrong, yet the people in the story do it anyways without much persuasion.

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Similarly, in The Hunger Games, society’s perspective on what’s right and wrong is abandoned. Everyone who is 12-18 years of age from each district is obligated to attend the annual Hunger Games event which involves randomly selecting two tributes from each district to fight to the death. The whole idea of killing people for the entertainment of others is just plain horrific, but because the authorities have insisted that it is simply an enjoyable game, many people have followed their lead and does not object or rebel about how morally wrong the prospect of murdering people is when the event is held.


Moreover, in both stories, following the crowd forces society to turn against and betray their family.

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This is proven in The Lottery when the son is encouraged to contribute to the murder of his mother, whose name was unfortunately drawn from the box. “The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles.” This displays signs of betrayal towards Davy’s mother, Tessie Hutchinson. Clearly, the people of the community implied that it is perfectly fine to betray and kill your own mother by throwing pebbles at her. Although, Davy had no choice for he was merely a kid and must obey the rules of his town rituals, especially since the vast majority of the townspeople has conformed.

Likewise, in The Hunger Games, society is compelled to turn against their own family by allowing their children or siblings to participate in the games without any protests. For instance, "Effie Trinket asks for volunteers, but no one steps forward. He has two older brothers, I know, I've seen them in the bakery, but one is probably too old now to volunteer and the other won't." It is shown that Peeta's brother is not willing to help and volunteer in his place. Peeta could potentially be killed in a "game" that everyone is supposed to take pleasure in, yet his brother will not come to his aid. He has no option but to turn against him unless he intends to put his life at risk.  

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All in all, these two points show that the outcomes of conforming to society’s traditions are dreadful. Unless people speak out against these awful rituals, they will forever have to endure the torture for years to come.

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                                        A small except from The Hunger Games

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I hear his instructions in my head. "Just clear out, put as much distance as you can between yourselves and the others, and find a source of water."



But it's tempting, so tempting, when I see the bounty waiting there before me. And I know that if I don't get it, someone else will. That the Career Tributes who survive the bloodbath will divide up most of these life-sustaining spoils. Something catches my eye. There, resting on a mound of blanket rolls, is a silver sheath of arrows and a bow, already strung, just waiting to be engaged. That's mine, I think. It's meant for me.

 

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