Book Report
The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins, appears to be your average teen romance trilogy, but upon second glance one realizes that this is not the case. Collins writes about a future nation that requires its children to kill each other as a form of entertainment for the people of the Capitol. The plot makes for a very exciting story line, but as the reader one cannot help but wonder what message Collins is trying to get across. Does she believe that if we continue down the path that society is currently taking we will someday face a world similar to Panem? That this fiction could someday become a reality on certain levels? Within these novels, Collins includes several important themes, including: corrupt politics, starvation vs. greed, and the obsession with entertainment.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in the nation of Panem, a post-apocalyptic North America, with her mother and younger sister, Prim. Her family resides in District 12, the poorest of 12 districts ruled by the wealthy Capitol. Katniss provides for her mother and sister by hunting with her friend Gale in the forbidden woods nearby. As punishment for the districts' rebellion attempt years earlier, the Capitol holds an annual televised event called The Hunger Games. Each district must draw the names of a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18. These 24 youths become contestants, called tributes, who must fight to the death in a vast arena created by the Capitol Gamemakers. The lone survivor returns home to wealth and fame. One year, on the day of reaping, Prim's name is drawn. Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place. The other tribute is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son who once saved Katniss' family from starvation by sneaking them bread. Guards put Katniss and Peeta on a train for the Capitol. Haymitch Abernathy, their trainer, accompanies them. He is the only District 12 tribute who has ever survived the Hunger Games.
The bored, wealthy people of the Capitol celebrate the Hunger Games with parties and parades. Capitol-appointed prep teams create an image for each tribute by providing costumes, makeovers and talking points. Tributes who impress the Capitol viewers win sponsors or wealthy fans, who will fund gifts of food and equipment at critical points in the Games. In his pre-Games TV interview, Peeta claims he's secretly loved his District 12 counterpart for years. Since tributes are always on camera, Katniss can never ask Peeta if his declaration is true or a ploy to attract attention. She plays along, and they draw many sponsors with their ill-fated romance.
After Olympic-like opening ceremonies, the tributes are thrown into an arena with miles of forestland. Eleven tributes die the first day as the contestants fight for the few supplies the Capitol has provided. Katniss takes off alone, hiding and hunting for several days until a group of allied tributes traps her in a tree. There, she finds a young tribute named Rue, who reminds her of her sister. Their alliance and friendship are short-lived. Another boy kills Rue with a spear a few days later. Playing on the audience's thirst for romance, the Gamemakers announce that if two members from the same district are the last two contestants, both may return home. Katniss finds Peeta and tends to the wounds he's acquired in a battle with another tribute.
When only one contestant besides Katniss and Peeta remains, the Gamemakers release a pack of vicious dog-like creatures. The beasts slowly maul the other boy to death. Katniss and Peeta believe they've won the Games but a voice announces that the previous rule change has been revoked. Only one contestant can win, meaning the District 12 tributes must fight each other to the death. Peeta and Katniss threaten to eat poisonous berries simultaneously. The Gamemakers, knowing a double suicide will be an unsatisfying conclusion for the audience, quickly uphold their earlier ruling. Though both teens are allowed to return to home, Haymitch tells Katniss that the Capitol is furious with their attempt to throw the Games. As she rides the train to District 12, Katniss senses she is anything but safe. She also learns that Peeta's love is real, but he's crushed to hear that Katniss is uncertain of her feelings for him. She's developed a deep fondness for Peeta, but she finds herself thinking more about Gale, a friend she used to illegally hunt with in the forest.
One of the overarching themes in the trilogy is politics and the overbearing dictatorship form of government that exists in Panem. This can be seen through the social hierarchy that the Capitol has established throughout each district. The districts are ranked in numerical order with the Capitol as the leader, and districts 1 through 12 decreasing in worth. Whenever there are harsh conditions and poverty at one end of the country and at the other end there are people who live a life of luxury and overindulge in greed, the system is corrupt and the politics are unjust. The fact that poverty is a significant problem for the country supports how corrupt and negligent the political system is in Panem.
The theme of politics increases in importance throughout the novels, because it is the government’s mistreatment that sparks the uprisings and forces the citizens into rebellion. The Hunger Games was a response to the rebels, reminding them that the Capitol has the ultimate power and cannot be taken down. To remind the districts of the Capitol’s power, twenty-four children are picked annually to fight to the death leaving one victor. President Snow is a tyrant that shows no remorse in killing his nation’s youth. He only worries about putting fear into Panem’s citizens to void any thoughts of another rebellion. The idea of the Hunger Games can be compared with that of the Roman gladiator games in which men were thrown into an arena expecting to kill each other.
The idea of the Hunger Games as a form of entertainment is a ridiculous idea in itself. Just like the Nazis found pleasure in their slayings, the Capitol finds it in the Games. This leads into another important theme of the Hunger Games, which is the idea of entertainment in the eyes of the Capitol versus the rest of the nation. The people of the Capitol find gratification in watching the nation’s youth fight to the death and then parade the winner around as a celebrity. In a society that depends on media and entertainment like Facebook, Twitter, reality TV, etc. we are forced to think of a world where the need for entertainment exceeds our morals. In the Hunger Games, entertainment dominates the lives of the Capitol citizens and blurs the edge of what is actually entertaining versus morally wrong.
Katniss was named for a plant that is deeply rooted into the ground and has leaves shaped like arrowheads, an ancient weapon used by male mythical characters. This ancient connection ties Katniss’s name to such mythologies as the tales of Spartacus and Theseus. Katniss channels the child warrior Theseus, who volunteered in place of a fellow citizen and rescued the other youth after slaying the beast, when she volunteers for her sister, rescues Peeta from death’s grip, and shows compassion for the fallen. Later in the trilogy, Katniss serves as a leader for the districts’ rebellion, much like Spartacus who led slaves against the Roman Empire. Katniss often defies the counsel of authority in order to follow her instincts and ultimately succeeds in her goal to create peace and safety in Panem. She is the hero of the story, and by taking over the responsibilities given to male figures in past stories of heroism, Collins has defied the typical role of the helpless teenage girl and designed the ultimate woman warrior.
Although the Hunger Games is a just-can’t-put-it-down type of book, readers are also forced to think of a world where the government would force their citizens to partake in such Games. The readers must dig deeper into the literature and pull out the messages that Collins embedded into pages. Collins argues that corrupt governments hold the power to take away life’s everyday joys, like the Nazis did to the Jews. She depicts a world where entertainment means more to people than the lives of their children, and where art is no longer a beautiful creation, but odd and grotesque modifications to the world around them. Through the use of Katniss and Peeta, Collins defies gender norms by making a female the heroin and also creates hope by making Peeta a biblical figure. By digging deeper into the trilogies, the readers are able to interpret these themes that Collins finds crucial.