The plot of "The Lottery" is set in a little village of 300 people.

A ceremonial
lottery is held every year. For his family, every guy must draw a slip of paper. If you win
most other lotteries, you will be showered with good fortune, but this lottery is out of the
ordinary. The winner in this lottery is to be stoned to death. The protagonist, Tessie
Hutchinson, is angry when her husband wins the first round. Tessie ends up drawing
the slip with the black dot in the second round, which each member of the Hutchinson
family must do. The short story "Button, Button," on the other hand, is about a couple
who lives a typical, uneventful life. That is, until a mysterious man with a package and a
message appears at the door. You will receive $50,000 if you press the button, but
there is a catch. Someone you don't know will die in return for your money. Norma falls
into her avarice and pushes the button after an internal struggle and multiple
confrontations with her husband, resulting in her husband's untimely death.

The presence of a mysterious box is one of the first parallels that comes to mind
between these two stories. In "The Lottery," each villager draws a slip of paper from a
wooden box, while the button unit is discovered in a cardboard box left outside Norma
and Arthur's apartment door in "Button, Button." In both stories, the boxes have
symbolic meanings. The box in "The Lottery" represents the lottery's tradition. The box
is very old, and the villagers do not want to change it, just as the lottery tradition is very
old, and there is resistance to changing it. A mysterious box containing a button
appears at the couple's door in "Button, Button." The husband dies when the button is
pressed. This represents how a seemingly insignificant act, such as the simple press of
a button, can have unexpected and long-lasting consequences.

Another correlation between "The Lottery" and "Button, Button" is that both
stories present a moral and ethical quandary that prompts the reader to ask, "Is murder
ever justified?" The community in "The Lottery" has a tradition that calls for the murder
of one of its citizens with no regard for the cost of the act. Tessie, one of the characters,
defies convention, while the others do not. Jackson invents a tradition that appears
absurd to the reader, but the citizens see nothing wrong with it. She wants us to wonder
why they are putting up with such a heinous practice when it is obvious to us that it is
wrong. Mr. Stewart explains in "Button, Button" that "If you press the button, someone
you don't know will die somewhere in the world. In exchange, you will receive a fifty
thousand dollar payment " (274). This sets up the moral dilemma. Norma and Arthur
disagree on whether or not to press the button. If they don't know the person, Norma
says it's not murder, but Arthur says it is. Norma pays the ultimate price for her greed,
realising that the money she receives does not justify the death of her husband.

There are many parallels between these two stories, but there are also some
differences. The murder committed in each storey is a significant difference. The murder
in "The Lottery" is motivated by tradition, whereas the murder in "Button, Button" is
motivated by selfishness. The box used in "The Lottery" is older than the community's
oldest man. Every year, the lottery is held on the same day. Tessie loses track of the
day and comes "a-runnin'" when she realises she is late. " Mr. Summers frequently
mentioned making a new box, but no one wanted to upset even as much tradition as the
black box represented." All of this evidence suggests that the murder at the end of the
lottery is based on tradition.

In “Button, Button”, however, the murder is based on a selfish choice. Norma

says they would be able to take the trip to Europe that they had been wanting if they
pushed the button (278). She also resents that she has to work, because she wants to
be a stay-at-home mom. Pushing the button, and killing someone, will give them the
money that they need to have the life Norma wants (279). Finally, Norma makes Arthur
a special breakfast to try to show him that she is not selfish after the fight they had the
night before when she tried to convince him to push the button for the money regardless
of who dies (278). Each of these events from the story support the belief that the murder
in “Button, Button” is based on a selfish choice by Norma.