The theme of a story is the main idea it portrays or reveals. Theme is important to a story because it is the central focus of the entire story. It is most often implied rather than stated, and a lot of times one story can have a multitude of different themes, depending on the reader's’ perspective or perception. Theme ties together all of the aspects and events that make up a story, including the plot, point of view, characters, and setting of a story. Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron,” and Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” share many similarities regarding the themes of the two stories, such as their drive to maintain unity through common practices, their vulnerability to great leadership, and both society’s unwillingness to break tradition. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the government’s ideal goal for society is establishing equality amongst the citizens. In hopes that they will achieve their goal, the government requires all of the citizens that they consider to be unique, or “above average,” to wear a handicap that cripples their…show more content… The citizens that are most athletic, giving them more strength than others, are equipped with heavy weights to wear around their necks at all times, creating a possible struggle for them to partake in their daily, active routines. The more intelligent citizens, such as George Bergeron, have to wear little ear radios that make noises to interrupt a person’s train of thought whenever it starts to wander. The beautiful have to wear masks to hide their physical appearance from the citizens that feel they were not blessed with the greatest looks. Vonnegut used this theme to infer that total equality may not have the ideal outcome worth striving for, but rather a misinterpreted fantasy with faulty outcomes. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the townspeople host a yearly lottery. It consists of the children gathering stones of all sizes,
