"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson

I found "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson quite confusing.  The story begins by talking about how the boys were building a pile of rocks and then goes on to relate the importance of the Lottery.  Much of the story talks about the different people from the town selecting pieces of paper out of the box that is used every year for the lottery.  In the end it appears that Tessie Hutchinson draws the piece of paper that everyone wants to avoid and as a consequence is forced to stand in the center of the circle consisting of villagers who began to pelt her with rocks.  What I am having a hard time understanding is what is Shirley Jackson trying to elude to?  I mean is the "stoning" suppose to be like a "hunger games" type ritual where they select one person form the village every year to be killed for some reason that the story does not reveal?  I'm not even sure what the point of the story is suppose to be.  I guess the only conclusion I came to was that maybe Shirley Jackson was trying to portray that LIFE in general is risky and sometimes there is nothing we can do to avoid our destiny other than be resigned to it.  If anyone has any answers to my questions I would love to hear others input.