One often hears the phrase; you’ve got to take the good with the bad. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the central theme of both short stories describe the drawbacks of creating a perfect society. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” describes a summer festival in Omelas, a utopian city whose prosperity and success depends on the perpetual misery of a single child, kept locked beneath it in torture and filth. While “The Lottery” depicts a small town that has kept an annual ritual known as "the lottery," which culminates in the stoning of a single randomly chosen villager. When comparing both of the stories, each has a single character that receives a form of punishment in order for the rest of the characters to prosper. Whilst this one unlucky chosen character is being abused or physical wounded the remainder of the municipality is treated to an improved society. The authors’ explore the possible shortcomings of cultivating a superior or enhanced society thorough the examination of personal innocence, personal responsibility and ill-informed traditions in both short stories. Using personal innocence both Le Guin and Jackson are able to illustrate the devastating truth behind bettering a group of people. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Le Guin describes the child in the cellar to be an innocent young child, pleading to be released. The punishment of this child allows the rest of Omelas to function perfectly, however if the child is released or spoken fondly towards then Omelas will fall apart. The child is chosen at random without a concrete reason for being incarcerated in the cage. For the most part, people in the city don’t even go to view the child, never the less communicate the horror that lays below them. This is a clear demonstration of a sacrifice that an enhanced society must endure in order for everyone living there to lead normal and fruitful lives. The author describes the child as innocent and frightened, with the deepest wish to be set free again in society. Le Guin states that the child was once free before being forced in the cage and now the child pleads to the other citizens, “Please let me out. I will be good!” (261). To the best of the reader’s knowledge, the child has done nothing to deserve this fate and his pleas for help illustrate how the innocent child is made to suffer the consequences of a superior society. Similarly to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” “The Lottery” describes the punishment of one random innocent person to ensure a bountiful harvest for the whole town. One of the main characters, Tessie, is chosen at random to receive the punishment. Tessie’s personal innocence is depicted when she exclaimes, “ ‘it isn’t fair,