Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" concerns itself
with the 'tribal' nature of any small community. As I was reading "The Lottery" I
couldn't help but think of the book series "Hunger Games", in which
the main idea was to draw a name(or in this case a black dot) and those people
were to be killed. We all have laws to follow. This is what keeps the peace, if
you will. If we don't follow those laws then we are caught and looked down upon.
One of the characters in the story, Old Man Warner, is against breaking
tradition for two possible reasons. He is stuck in his old ways or he is afraid
of change because he is unsure of what might happen. “First thing you know, we’d
all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns” (294) Notice that no one else speaks
their opinion other than Old Man Warner.
I have no problem with your allusion, but I'd like to see you draw out the comparison. Beyond drawing names out of a box and being chosen to be killed, where are the other comparisons? Where does the comparison fail? How can you more strongly tie both the short story and the book/movie allusion to the idea of small community and a tribal nature? What can you tell me about the tribal nature in Hunger Games?
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