Lottery Hunger Games

Picking children at random to be killed cruelly seems like an outlandish premise for any story, but remarkably, Suzanne Collins's 2008 novel The Hunger Games resembles Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" in many ways. Both are about a cruel, senseless annual event, in which people are chosen at random in a lottery situation. The selected people face death, and their death is presented to the public as a form of entertainment. Both authors make powerful commentary about society being cruel, and both also suggest that individuals should speak out against the unjust and outmoded institutions of society. However similar these two stories may be, there are some significant differences between them. One is a short story, which allows for less character development. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is told from the point-of-view of a third person omniscient narrator, whereas Collins's novel is told from the first person...
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