This document discusses themes in two short stories: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and "The Lottery." Both stories involve towns that sacrifice individuals for the greater good of the community. In Omelas, a child is sacrificed and isolated. In "The Lottery," a citizen is randomly selected and stoned to death. The document examines whether these sacrifices can be justified and allows readers to determine if they agree with the towns' actions. It also discusses how themes of tradition, family, and rules are represented in "The Lottery."

1. Theme
Kallie Bilyeu, Richard Coble,
Shannon Tolbirt, and Zach Wilson

2. What is Theme?
 When we question what a story means, we are searching for it’s theme.
 Theme is defined as, a general idea or observation conveyed by a piece of
work.
 Theme is the key topic of a work. It is what the author wants the reader to
get out of the story.

3. The idea behind the story
 There are a few passages like fables, fairytales, and folktales, that explicitly
state there themes. However, most passages must ultimately “earn” their
theme. They earn there theme by bringing a basic statement to life through
things like characters, plot, setting, symbols, and narration. The theme
usually develops indirectly through the reappearance of a specific idea.
 Theme is sometimes confused with the plot. However, the difference is that
theme refers to the idea or concept that is behind the story, while on the
other hand plot refers to the actions that occur during the story.

4. Overview of “The Ones Who Walked
Away from Omelas”
 In Omelas, the town in which the story takes place, the town must sacrifice a
child each year. Though the sacrifice is not a death sacrifice, some may still view
it as cruel.
 The sacrifice involves the child being isolated from the town in a closet that is
available to be displayed to those who wish to see it. The child is fed only a half
a bowl of food a day while also being left naked sitting in it’s own waste.
 The town’s happiness relies on this sacrifice to take place. The people are free to
leave if they wish but may not experience another town as happy as Omelas.
 As foreshadowed by the title, some people decide to leave and this brings to light
the short story’s theme.

5. Theme of “The Ones Who Walk Away
from Omelas”
 The theme from this story is very evident and can
be quite controversial.
 The story makes the reader wonder if the people
who decide to stay in Omelas, who know of the of
the child, are evil or guilty of wrong-doing.
 It also makes the reader wonder if the ones who
leave are better people.
 The great thing about the lesson to be learned in
Omelas is the fact that the story allows the
reader to decide for themselves if the citizens
are being reasonable or truly evil.
 It also allows the reader to determine for
themselves if the ones who leave are more
righteous individuals or unable to understand the
sacrifice the way the ones who stay do.

6. Themes in “The Lottery”
~Tradition~
 The village blindly follows tradition, every year they repeat the same
morbid tradition of stoning someone to death.
 They think the other villages that have stopped the tradition are full
of young fools.
 They want to keep the black box even though it is falling apart
because it is part of their tradition and there are pieces of the
original black box.
 The villagers would rather follow tradition than change and not stone
someone to death for the sake of their crops.

7. “Family and Loyalty”
 In “The Lottery” the villagers show that they have a strong sense of
family. They gather together at the meeting place as a family.
 The head of household (usually the oldest man) does the first draw.
 When Tessie, the main character, learns that it is her family that will
have to draw again, she instantly attempts to make her family larger
by adding other family members that do not live in her household.
 Ironically, the family members of the person to be stoned are still in
line with rest of the villagers to throw the stones.

8. “Following Rules”
 In “The Lottery” the villagers follow all the rules. They all line up at the
same time in the same place every year.
 They each pick a piece of paper and the one who picks the one with the dot
gets sacrificed.
 Tessie on this important day had broken the rule, she was late. This is an
important village tradition and Tessie made a joke. A few villagers laughed
just to be polite, but Tessie had still broken these rules.
 The villagers all followed the rules, Tessie did not; and in the end Tessie was
the one that was stoned.

9. Each Stories Themes Represented in Our
Society
 The major theme represented in these two
short stories is the sacrifices each town
makes each year for their town’s happiness.
 As stated in previous slides, the town Omelas
sacrifices a child each year and the town in
“The Lottery” sacrifices a randomly chosen
citizen each year for the continued growth
of the town’s crops.
 This presents a major question: Are the
sacrifices made by the towns in these stories
justified?
 The answer to this question can truly be
subjective but there are some key points to
take note on.

10. Sacrifices in Our Society
 Many people in our society go through each day without even recognizing the
sacrifices made each and every day just like the citizens in Omelas.
 These sacrifices are no worse or better than the ones made in the stories.
 For example, in the Vietnam War, our country forced younger American male
citizens to fight in the war.
 In fact, each 18 year old male is required to register for the draft in America.
 This is no different than the sacrifices in “The Lottery” and Omelas.

11. Justification of the Sacrifices
 The truth is that each individual has the option to leave both of the towns.
 Since the individuals choose to stay and live in these towns, they are
justifying the sacrifices for the reward they bring.
 In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away form Omelas”, there are mentions of
the people who choose to leave the town because they personally do not
believe the sacrifices are ethical.
 Finally, the themes in these stories focus on whether these sacrifices are
justified. In the end, the sacrifices can only be justified by your own personal
beliefs. The stories allow each individual to choose for themselves whether
sacrifices are able to be justified.

12. Closing Ideas
 In the end, it is important to note that the theme of a story is very important.
 It puts a point into reading a story not just for entertainment but also for a
lesson to be learned or idea to be thought of.
 Each theme in these stories is based on sacrifices of a local citizen for the
good of the rest of the town.
 This theme is very controversial and make deciding which is right or wrong
very hard to decide.
 As this presentation ends, we hope that everyone will try and identify the
theme of each new story you read after watching this presentation.

13. Works Cited
 Mays, Kelly J., ed. Norton Into to Literature (shorter). 11th ed. N.p.: Norton
W.w. & Company, Inc., 2008. Print.