The Hunger Games is
a 2008 science fiction novel by American writer Suzanne Collins. It is
written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the
post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America
once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises
political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an
annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the
twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to
compete in a
televised battle to the death.
The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and
authors, including authors Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer. It was
praised for its storyline and character development, though some
reviewers have noted similarities between Collins’ book and Koushun
Takami’s Battle Royale (1999). In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew
upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary
reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards,
including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of
Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of the Year” in 2008.
The Hunger Games
was first published in hardcover on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic,
featuring a cover designed by Tim O’Brien. It has since been released in
paperback and also as an audiobook and ebook. After an initial print of
200,000, the book had sold 800,000 copies by February 2010. Since its
release, The Hunger Games has been translated into 26 languages, and
publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The novel is the
first in The Hunger Games trilogy, followed by Catching Fire (2009) and
Mockingjay (2010). A film adaptation, directed by Gary Ross and
co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012.
PLOT:
The Hunger Games takes place in a nation known as Panem, established in
North America after the destruction of the continent’s civilization by
an unknown apocalyptic event. The nation consists of the wealthy Capitol
and twelve surrounding, poorer districts united under the Capitol’s
control. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich
region that was formerly known as Appalachia.
As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol, in which a
13th district was destroyed, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12
and 18 from each district are selected by an annual lottery to
participate in the Hunger Games, an event in which the participants (or
“tributes”) must fight to the death in an outdoor arena controlled by
the Capitol, until only one individual remains. The story is narrated by
16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers
for the 74th annual Hunger Games in place of her younger sister,
Primrose. The male tribute chosen from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a
former schoolmate of Katniss who once gave her bread from his family’s
bakery when her family was starving.
Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol, where their drunken
mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, victor of the 50th Hunger Games, instructs
them to watch and determine the strengths and weaknesses of the other
tributes. “Stylists” are employed to make each tribute look his or her
best; Katniss’s stylist, Cinna, is the only person at the Capitol with
whom she feels a degree of understanding. The tributes are publicly
displayed to the Capitol audience in an interview with television host
Caesar Flickerman, and have to attempt to appeal to the television
audience in order to obtain “sponsors”. During this time, Peeta reveals
on-air his longtime unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss believes this
to be a ploy to gain sponsors, who can be critical to survival because
of their ability to send gifts such as food, medicine, and tools to
favored tributes during the Games.
While nearly half the tributes are killed in the first day of the
Games, Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and survival skills
to remain unharmed and concealed from the other tributes. A few days
into the Games, Katniss develops an alliance with Rue, a 12-year-old
girl from the agricultural District 11 who reminds Katniss of her own
sister. In the meantime, Peeta appears to have joined forces with the
tributes from the richer districts. However, when he has the opportunity
to kill Katniss, he instead saves her from the others. Katniss’s
alliance with Rue is brought to an abrupt end when Rue is killed by
another tribute, whom Katniss then kills with an arrow. Katniss sings to
Rue until she dies, and spreads flowers over her body as a sign of
respect for Rue and disgust towards the Capitol.
Apparently because of Katniss and Peeta’s image in the minds of the
audience as “star-crossed lovers”, a rule change is announced midway
through the Games, allowing two tributes from the same district to win
the Hunger Games as a couple. Upon hearing this, Katniss begins
searching for Peeta. She eventually finds him, wounded and in hiding. As
she nurses him back to health, she acts the part of a young girl
falling in love to gain more favor with the audience and, consequently,
gifts from her sponsors. When the couple remains as the last two
surviving tributes, the Gamemakers reverse the rule change in an attempt
to force them into a dramatic finale, in which one must kill the other
to win. Katniss, knowing that the Gamemakers would rather have two
victors than none, retrieves highly poisonous berries known as
“nightlock” from her pouch and offers some to Peeta. Realizing that
Katniss and Peeta intend to commit suicide, the Gamemakers announce that
both will be the victors of the 74th Hunger Games.
Although she survives the ordeal in the arena and is treated to a
hero’s welcome in the Capitol, Katniss is warned by Haymitch that she
has now become a political target after defying her society’s
authoritarian leaders so publicly. Afterwards, Peeta is heartbroken when
he learns that Katniss’s actions in the arena were part of a calculated
ploy to earn sympathy from the audience. However, Katniss is unsure of
her own feelings and realizes that she is dreading the moment when she
and Peeta will go their separate ways.
THEMES:
In an interview with Collins, it was noted that the novel “tackles
issues like severe poverty, starvation, oppression, and the effects of
war among others.” The novel deals with the struggle for
self-preservation that the people of Panem face in their districts and
the Hunger Games in which they must participate. The citizens’
starvation and their need for resources, both in and outside of the
arena, create an atmosphere of helplessness that the main characters try
to overcome in their fight for survival. Katniss needs to hunt to
provide food for her family, resulting in the development of skills that
are useful to her in the Games (such as her proficiency with the bow
and arrow), and represents her rejection of the Capitol’s rules in the
face of life-threatening situations. On the subject of the Games’
parallels with popular culture, Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly
writes that the book “is an incisive satire of reality television
shows”, and that the character of Cinna “almost seems like a contestant
on a fascist version of Project Runway, using Katniss’ outfits as a
vehicle to express potentially dangerous ideas.”
The choices the characters make and the strategies they use are often
morally complex. The tributes build a personality they want the
audience to see throughout the Games. Library journal Voice of Youth
Advocates names the major themes of The Hunger Games as “government
control, ‘big brother’, and personal independence.” The trilogy’s theme
of power and downfall, similar to that of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,
was pointed out by its publisher Scholastic. Laura Miller of The New
Yorker finds the author’s stated premise of the Games — an exercise in
propaganda and a “humiliating as well as torturous …. punishment” for a
failed uprising against the Capitol many years earlier — to be
unconvincing. “You don’t demoralize and dehumanize a subject people by
turning them into celebrities and coaching them on how to craft an
appealing persona for a mass audience.” But the story works much better
if the theme is vicissitudes of high school and “the adolescent social
experience”.
Miller writes: "The rules are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change.
A brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking,
and the athletic lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive
you have to be totally fake. Adults don’t seem to understand how high
the stakes are; your whole life could be over, and they act like it’s
just some “phase”! Everyone’s always watching you, scrutinizing your
clothes or your friends and obsessing over whether you’re having sex or
taking drugs or getting good enough grades, but no one cares who you
really are or how you really feel about anything.”
Donald Brake from The Washington Times and pastor Andy Langford state
that the story has Christian themes, such as that of self-sacrifice,
which is found in Katniss’ substitution for her younger sister,
analogous to the sacrifice of Jesus as a substitute for the atonement of
sins. Brake, as well as another reviewer, Amy Simpson, both find that
the story also revolves around the theme of hope, which is exemplified
in the “incorruptible goodness of Katniss’ sister, Primrose.” Simpson
also points to events similar to the Passion of Jesus; in the Games,
“Christ figure” Peeta Mellark is stabbed after warning Katniss to flee
for her life, and is then buried in the ground and placed in a cave for
three days before emerging with a new lease on life. Further, she finds
that the Christian image of the Bread of Life is used throughout The
Hunger Games; in the story, Peeta gives Katniss a loaf of bread, saving
the girl and her family from starvation.
______
WRITING ASSIGNMENT (3 to 5 sentences for each, for numbers 1-9)
1) Write a Letter
- Pretend you are a tribute and are given one chance to write a letter
home from the Capitol to your family. It is the night before you are
going to enter the arena and this is most likely the last chance you
will ever get to say goodbye.
i. What are you feeling about having to fight in the games?
ii. What would you tell your siblings (if you have any)
iii. What is the Capitol like? Describe what you have experienced.
iv. What do you want them to remember about you?
2) Describe the setting in one paragraph. Address the name of the
setting, what it feels like there, and what time period it reminds you
of.
3) What is the lifestyle like in District 12? What can we learn
about the characters based on how they interact with their living
conditions?
4) How does the reaping make you feel? What is your impression of the Capital after the reaping?
5) Compare Effie to Katniss. How does this mirror your perceived differences between District 12 and the Capitol?
6) How do you think the train makes Katniss and Peeta feel? Consider
their lives in the District and consider how easily everything appears
on the train.
7) What is your first opinion of the Capitol? What would be your reaction in that situation?
8) Compare the Capitol to the Districts.
9) How do you think you would have reacted to the Avox?
____
Sources for assignment:
Hunger Games Assignments – Talman Library – Google Sites
https://sites.google.com/site/talmanlibrary/useful-links
and
Mr. Rowe’s Super Funtastic Class
http://www.mrrowesclass.com/hunger-games-assignments/
Michaelbrent Collings
is a #1 bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His bestsellers include
Strangers, Darkbound, Apparition, The Haunted, The Loon, and the YA
fantasy series The Billy Saga (beginning with Billy: Messenger of
Powers).Also, if you enjoy the book, please recommend it to a friend! The only way to keep your favorite authors working to bring you YOUR favorite books is not only to buy the book, but to encourage others to do so as well. Happy reading….
