"The Lottery"-Shirley Jackson

      I think it's obvious that Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games, took a few notes from Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.  If not, the similarities are uncanny.  Both have an annual event that ends in the unjust persecution of innocent man or woman.  The entire town (district) attends this event praying they are not pulled from the "black box"/"reaping bowl".  However similar, these two stories have one major difference.  While the Hunger Games are a punishment, the lottery is a result of tradition.
 
  "Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (Jackson, 265).   

    The stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson is a direct result of the pointless tradition upheld by this small village.  At no point within the short story is the purpose of the execution presented.  Even as Old Man Warner and Mr. Adams discuss the possibility of the lottery's ending in the north village, the audience never learns why this village still does/ever participated in it.  At first, it seems as if this village is only sympathetic towards children as one's name is put into the box at a certain age.  However, the audience quickly learns that not even the children are safe.  The most surprising aspect of this story, for me, stems from the apathetic nature of the citizens as they close in to stone Mrs. Hutchinson to death.  They view the killing as a civil responsibility rather than a moral grievance.

“Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” 
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book