Class Notes: Lottery and Omelas

The two poems are very similar in that they have the theme of sacrifice. In each society, one person sacrifices for the good of the group and everyone else prospers. The positive effects are greatly highlighted in Omelas, but it takes place in a more modern setting than the Lottery. The Lottery is more old-fashioned, and had many more religious allusions than Omelas. In each story, there are people who talk of other towns that do not practice the same sacrificial rituals as they do, but these people do not do anything to stop these rituals. In Omelas, the people that cannot bear to live in this society with the knowledge of the child's suffering simply walk out of town, never to be heard from again. In the Lottery, those who speak of other towns simply go along with the traditions and do not actively stand against the old ways.