Authors get inspire by other´s work and when they decide to use others ideas and transform it into theirs, there are several things they need to do. First they need to create a new concept, which will have some similarities but also differences with the idea they are basing theirs on. Then develop this concept through a story, novel, article, TV show or by using any other method or media. Their work message and/or theme will be similar, but also different to the work they based on.
An example of these is “The Lottery” and the “Whacking day”. The first one is a story in which winning the lottery will lead to death, because it’s a tradition in the town. In order to ensure a good harvest, someone gets sacrificed. All the community is in favor of these tradition, except for Tessie, a girl who considers this tradition unfair once she was directly affected. The theme/message of this story in that society isn’t thinking before acting and also that you will not start thinking after you are directly affected. The Simpsons creators, took as a base “The Lottery” and create a really similar concept through an episode called “Whacking day”. During these episode the tradition that is shown is that people of the town in a very specific day will hit snakes with a baseball bat and therefore kill them. Lisa and Bart don’t find the reason to do this, so they started investigating about these tradition. People invented false reasons for the tradition, like that God told them that they needed to follow it and many other. Finally Lisa and Bart discover the truth reason, which was that they the members of the town used to beat the Irish, but then they stopped doing these and started beating snakes. Lisa and Bart were able to change people’s mind and stop this tradition. The message/theme of the story is similar to “The Lottery” because it’s about how society isn't thinking before acting, but it’s different because Lisa and Bart proved that if you put a lot of effort, you can make a change in society.
Read "The Lottery" here.
Watch "The Whacking Day" here.
An example of these is “The Lottery” and the “Whacking day”. The first one is a story in which winning the lottery will lead to death, because it’s a tradition in the town. In order to ensure a good harvest, someone gets sacrificed. All the community is in favor of these tradition, except for Tessie, a girl who considers this tradition unfair once she was directly affected. The theme/message of this story in that society isn’t thinking before acting and also that you will not start thinking after you are directly affected. The Simpsons creators, took as a base “The Lottery” and create a really similar concept through an episode called “Whacking day”. During these episode the tradition that is shown is that people of the town in a very specific day will hit snakes with a baseball bat and therefore kill them. Lisa and Bart don’t find the reason to do this, so they started investigating about these tradition. People invented false reasons for the tradition, like that God told them that they needed to follow it and many other. Finally Lisa and Bart discover the truth reason, which was that they the members of the town used to beat the Irish, but then they stopped doing these and started beating snakes. Lisa and Bart were able to change people’s mind and stop this tradition. The message/theme of the story is similar to “The Lottery” because it’s about how society isn't thinking before acting, but it’s different because Lisa and Bart proved that if you put a lot of effort, you can make a change in society.
Read "The Lottery" here.
Watch "The Whacking Day" here.