Similarities Between The Lottery And The Hunger Games

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The Lottery and The Hunger Games
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is comparable to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Both authors have characters that are similar to each other and act and think in a way that challenge the rules and who makes them. For example, Jackson discusses the character Tessie Hutchinson, who is a townsperson and is ultimately chosen by the Lottery. Collin’s character, Katniss Everdeen, is a citizen of District 12 and volunteers to be in The Games to protect her younger sister. Through the characterization of Katniss Everdeen and Tessie Hutchinson, Jackson and Collins show that the two characters are symbols of the flaws different government systems can have and that hope is critical for change. They show a theme
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Because of this, situations in The Hunger Games change. She becomes the Mockingjay later on in the series, in Catching Fire, the penultimate book and in Mockingjay, the final book. In The Hunger Games, the Mockingjay is represented as just a pin given to Katniss and birds that are “something of a slap in the face” (The Hunger Games, page 43) to the government that imposes the threat of the Games and the fear in the people participating in and watching the Games. Katniss wants to become a slap in the face to the Capital, because of everything inhumane and immoral they have done to her and other innocent citizens. She becomes the Mockingjay, to bring people hope that things will change. She develops into the Mockingjay as a way to bring hope to herself and her family.
3 Tessie Hutchinson is the opposite. She exemplifies selfishness and therefore no change occurs in her world. She is outraged that her family is chosen and tries any way she can to shift the responsibility to anyone else. She wants her daughter and another family to “’take their chance’” (The Lottery, page 5). She is willing to risk her children dying in order to lessen her chances.
Tessie Hutchinson and Katniss Everdeen are very similar in how they act and speak. They are used as symbols by Suzanne Collins and Shirley Jackson to show that the people in power are not always right or perfect, and that having hope can mean a world of difference in whether real progress is made. Just because someone is in a position of power, does not mean that they can rule our entire life or take away core values that we believe