At the end of the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson a gruesome public stoning takes place and leaves many wondering how she could write such a thing. It isn't until one analyzes their own life until they realize how capable they really are of carrying out this horrific act. An example of this is when seemingly normal Kids carry out a comparable act of violence, that fortunately doesn't result in a fatality. It's called the game of "Red Butt" or "Peggers" and it involves throwing a ball against a wall until some one fumbles it, this results in having to run to the wall while everyone gets to whale the ball at you, whether you want them to or not. Just like in book everyone follows these rules without question and will throw the ball at their friends or sibling because of someone started a tradition or in this case a school yard game. Most people believe that if they where a character in the story, they would stick up for the individual being stoned. In most cases the fact of the matter is that they are no different than the kids playing "Peggers" in the sense that if its what you have been taught growing up and you don't know that what your doing is wrong you'll carry out the act without thinking twice.
The message in the text "Perils of Indifference" by Elie Wiesels closely relates to "The Lottery" in trying to show how important compassion really is. One example of this similarity is in "Perils of Indifference" he talks about how not caring about others is often even more dangerous than anger. This is perfectly illustrated in "The Lottery" when the lady draws the black dot, which is a death sentence and instead of people consoling or comforting her they instead all scramble to find a big enough stone. The characters in the short story clearly did not feel the suffering they where causing and often complained how they wanted to get it over with so they could get on with their day. Elie points out that the very same thing happened during the Holocaust in the sense that the German soldiers killed thousands of Jews because they had no empathy for their lives and carrying out their orders was more of a priority than a human life. This shows if one lacks compassion for others it can lead them to carry out horrible acts.
