Not Your Typical Powerball

Ok, I might as well be honest and get this right out.  I loved this story.  The Lottery was my favorite work we've read all year, and I'm not really sure why.  It was just so twisted!  I've already decided I'm directing the first full-length feature film production of it, and my first directorial choice is to cast Helena Bonham Carter as Tessie Hutchinson.  Oh yes.  It will be a wonderful adaption of Shirley Jackson's short story into an M. Night Shyamalan-esque thriller, like The Village.  While I'm at talking about the actual story, I might as well answer a question, no?

#1. What is a "lottery"? How does the title lead you to expect something very different from what the story presents?

When I read the title of this story, I, as I assume most do, took it to mean a lotto.  You know, a bunch of people buy-in to a certain dollar amount and one lucky winner gets the jackpot.  As we find out later in the story, this is hardly the case.  To me, the word lottery carried with it a sense of risk and uncertainty, as it also does in the story; however, it also always had a positive connotation with it.  I mean, who doesn't want to chance themselves into winning a big payout?  This is the inconsistency in the connection between the story and its title.  There is no positive connotation.  The winner gets stoned to death.

I think I'm gonna cut if off there.  I could seriously talk about this story for hours.