The Lottery

I was fairly disturbed after reading Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.  When I initially saw the title, I assumed it would be in relation to money.  I made a prediction early on that, due to the small size and possible poverty of the village, that whoever won the lottery would be killed for the money.  It didn't take long for me to realize that this was not a normal lottery for prize money.  "They grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously" (Jackson, 267).  Why would everyone be so nervous if the only thing they had to lose was not winning the cash?
I was so disgusted when I discovered what the lottery really was about.  Not only was it a wide-spread tradition to stone an individual to death, but members of the story's village were harshly criticizing surrounding towns for giving up on the tradition.  How can such a barbaric event be a tradition for so many years?  Everyone in the village was numb to what was taking place!  Young boys were collecting smooth rocks for the stoning as though it were a game or competition.  Neighbor murdered neighbor; everyone just wanted the process to be over with as soon as possible so regular daily life could be continued.  It reminded me so much of the Hunger Games!  It was as though once the victim was selected, he or she lost her human dignity; everyone saw him or her as an object that needed to be disposed of.