The Hunger Games

Plot Summary

Katniss has had to take care of her family since her father’s death. She hunts and gathers for her mother and sister as they try to survive in the coal mining district of Panem, the post-apocalyptic version of America. She spends her days concerned about the health and safety of her family, but her focus has to change to her own survival when by a chance of fate and a single choice puts her in the Hunger Games. Now Katniss has to navigate social games within the Capital and fight 23 other contestants to the death in a harsh environment, which is also trying to kill her. All she has to aid her is a bakery boy, a woman with no control over her wig, and a man too drunk to walk without falling. 

Critical Evaluation

I had heard that the inspiration for The Hunger Games came to Suzanne Collins from watching T.V. one day, changing channels, and going from brightly colored, jovial game shows to footage from the Iraq war with children being killed and having to survive in horrible conditions. The trilogy was her way to make a commentary on how the two visuals can happily co-exist within our world by taking it to an extreme (Bibliostar.TV, 2012). Going into this book, however, I did not expect the radical sentiments to start from the first few pages with quotes like “Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love” (p. 4). For Katniss, love and safety are transactional because she lives in a world in which children are randomly selected to participate in a game to the death as a decades-long punishment for losing a war. 

There are deep and layered elements to the corrupt systems within the book that, while exaggerated, directly reflect the world in which we live in today. The ruling class in the Capital is well fed and supplied by the labor of the other districts, so they are able to spend their time focusing on their appearances and entertainment and subjugation of the Districts. Meanwhile, children in poorer situations are forced to increase their odds at entering into the Hunger Games in order to feed their families. The wealth disparity is stark and supported through the myth of the one means of escaping poverty and strife: winning a game of chance and death where the odds are purposefully stacked against you. 

I worried that the audience of the book would not be as affected by the thematic messaging due to the nature of storytelling conventions. After all, as the protagonist, Katniss would have to win the games, and winning is usually associated with triumph and fulfillment. Collins, however, makes sure that there is no such satisfaction: each death is written as the cost of the life of a child for the entertainment of the ruling class, not a victory of survival. The horror of the Games is taken to the extreme with the death of the final contestant which should have been a triumphant moment for Katniss, but instead was painful, drawn out, and tragic. Collins doesn’t want the power of a successful climax for the reader to diminish the message that such systems should not be exalted but should instead be dismantled. This compulsively readable story was filled with enough intrigue to keep the reader moving, but never let us forget that such a world is not to be desired. Collins successfully carries out her intended purpose of critiquing the systems of entertainment, power, and capitalism that we are confronted with on a daily basis

Creative Use for Library Program

It would be fun to invite survival skills experts to teach teens different survival skills. This could even be a multi-week program, perhaps in the summer, where different experts come and teach their individual skills. Possible programs could be:

•     Edible plants and foraging

•     Knot tying

•     Fire making

•     Camping 101

•     Plant and animal identification and interactions

•     Balance and body awareness

Book Talk

The only hope that a family can have of gaining money, prestige, and status in District 12 of Panem is through their child winning a competition to the death. The most unfortunate thing, at least for Katniss, is that the children don’t get to choose to enter the competition, they automatically are, and this year it could be the Everdeen family’s chance for greatness.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

The greatest challenge that will be placed against the book will be its many depictions of violence. It is a book where the central conception is a game show of teens killing other teens. One of my strongest defenses for this would be that the violence is never glorified or seen as anything other than undesirable. The book instead promotes moral lessons of loyalty, caring for family and community, and the power of working together. 

References

Amazon. (n.d.) The Hunger Games (Book 1) [Image]. https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Book-1/dp/0439023521/  

Bibliostar. TV. (2012, October 8). Suzanne Collins on the Vietnam War stories behind the Hunger Games and Year of the Jungle [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MiVBAPg6TU 

Booklist. (n.d.). The Hunger Games. American Library Association. https://www.booklistonline.com/products/2739783 

Grant, J. (2012). ‘Hunger Games; fan event [Photo]. Entertainment Weekly. https://ew.com/article/2012/03/05/hunger-games-fan-event/  

Lionsgate Movies. (2011, November 14). The Hunger Games (2012 movie) - official theatrical trailer- Jennifer Lawrence & Liam Hemsworth [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfmrPu43DF8

Suzanne Collins. (n.d.) Biography. https://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm