Both of these stories while interesting to read were extremely disturbing and had extreme twist endings. The first story the Omela’s describes essentially a Utopian society in which everything is perfect. The people are happy, the city is beautiful, essentially saying there are no problems with this society. However, the article towards the end discusses how there is a child locked in a room who is neglected and malnourished. The reason for this is that without his neglect the Omela’s would be unable to live in this utopian society and if they were to care for this child they would lose all their happiness. It essentially calls into question the trolly example. Asking in a sense if it makes sense to kill one and save multiple people. In the case of this story, it is essentially asking is it ok for one person to suffer in order for thousands to flourish. I think it also discusses the idea of how nothing in life can ever be perfect and sometimes for people to succeed others are sometimes neglected or are left behind.c
In the second story, the lottery described this lottery-based system in which representatives from each family had to pick a slip of paper from the lottery box without getting the black dot on the paper. Bill Hutchinson picked the piece of paper with the black dot on it. His family had to go up and place the black dot piece of paper in there with blank pieces of paper for the remaining family members. Tessie picked the piece of paper with the black spot and rocks were thrown at her for human sacrifice to ensure that their crops would grow. Discussing the idea of how some rituals are not worth holding on to. Believing that sacrifice would ensure crop growth is a ridiculous connotation/implication. Also, it is ironic how winning the lottery in this sense means death whereas, in our society winning the lottery is associated with profit and essentially is a great thing.
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