These stories are what I think of when I think of humanities. At first I struggled with how to connect the readings to leadership (I know leadership can really be applied to anything) but after a little more reflection, I understood.
The Omelas story reminds me very much of Plato’s Allegory of the cave. Children and adults who never see the child in the cell are like the people in stage one of the cave looking at the shadows but not realizing the shadows are not real. Once people see the child in the cell they are on their way out of the cave. The author describes how when people see the child they either become incredibly sad and then move on or become so incredibly sad they walk away and only they know where they are walking. I think this has a lot to do with leadership especially leadership of social movements. Injustices in society are brought to people’s attention because they involve injustices. We label people who see or suffer from these injustices and then act to combat them as leaders and we label people who see them and walk away from them as cowards or ignorant.
As for the lottery, I definitely picked up more of a women in leadership conversation starter. The fact that men ran the show and were the only ones capable of picking a number and determining their fate is not news but it still contributes to the narrative of a patriarchal society. The fact that the person chosen as the lottery winner (yet more like loser) was a woman only strengthens the story’s patriarchal themes. The rules that say a woman cannot pick a number and daughters must draw with their husbands family seem outlandish yet REAL laws and REAL policies we have as a REAL society say very similar things (ie, signing on a credit card to prove income or marital rape exemptions). We have learned a lot about marginalized groups throughout the semester and The Lottery is just another example of how women are part of the marginalized.
Overall, these short stories don’t seem like much on the surface but after a few more close-reads, they tell a lot about women, society, laws, mindsets, and of course leadership in the humanities.
I agree, The Lottery was a story I read back in high school and the first thing that came to my mind was the humanities, but not leadership as much. I also noticed the connection by the stereotyping of gender roles in The Lottery, as the men completely run the event yet women have little to no say of what goes on.
The allegory of the cave crossed my mind when I read this, too. The underlying idea in both of these readings is that if you’re never exposed to something, then you cannot worry or do anything about it.
I completely agree with your connection to the Allegory of the Cave, I thought of it immediately after reading the short story. I also noticed the connection to the Humanities in the other story.