‘The Hunger Games’, written by Suzanne Collins, is an acclaimed novel that narrates the story of Panem. The author portrays the relationship, starvation, poverty and suppression in a manner that attracts readers. This paper intends to discuss the novel and several other related aspects.
Panem is a rich, modern and the capitol city that is depended on twelve surrounding districts for its daily needs. The hunger game is an event that takes place in the city of Panem. It has been portrayed that the civilization of this region was destroyed due to an apocalyptic event (Collins). The city of Panem used to select one male and female teenager from each district and made them participate in the hunger games as punishment for their rebellion against the capitol city by these districts.
These participants were to fight to death against each other until the last participant remains alone. The story revolves around Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl from district 12 who participated in the games (Collins). The male participant from this district is Peeta Mellark who is also a schoolmate of the female participant. Peeta saved Katniss family once from starvation by giving them bread from his bakery.
The participants are taken to the capitol city and were presented before the audiences. Participants introduced themselves and described their qualities to the audiences. Peeta also revealed his love for Katniss and Katniss takes it as Peeta’s trick to gain sympathy of sponsors who used to provide medicines and food to the tributes while they participated in the hunger games (Egan). Haymitch, mentor from the same district, gave them some good information and tricks to face their opponents.
Almost half of the participants were killed during the first day fight. Katniss uses her skills to sustain and remain safe and sound. Katniss develops a union with district 11 girl Rue whom she sees as sister. Peeta, on the other hand, joined participants who belonged to rich districts. Katniss’s friend Rue is killed by one of the participants and Katniss kills him with her arrow(Collins). Katniss spreads flowers and sings for Rue that symbolizes love for Rue and hate for the capitol.
In between rules of the game are changed and participants from the same district are allowed to play the game as team. Katniss searches Peeta and finds him in an injured state. She takes care of him and also tries to gain the sympathy of people as well as sponsors by doing this. At this point of time, organizers of the game changed the rules and participants from the same districts were said to kill each other in order to win the game. Katniss uses her smartness at this point of time (Egan).
Katniss was a clever girl who assumed that organizers would rather accept both of them as winners instead of killing both of them. Katniss possesses some extremely venomous berries and gives it to Peeta (Egan). Seeing this, organizers feared that both of them are going to commit suicide. Organizers of the game announced that both participants jointly are the winners of the 74th hunger games.
Katniss symbolizes the modern woman who is smart and self prepared. She used to hunt in order to feed her family and offered her own life instead of her younger sister. She is confident and clever who does not hesitate from taking risks. She loves her friends but does not follow them blindly. She becomes alert when Peeta joins participants from rich districts but she also does not hesitate from helping Peeta when he is injured. Katniss is the main character of this story and has been portrayed in different roles.
Peeta is a brave young man who is very straight forward and ready to help others. Peeta always cared for Katniss and saved her even when he was in the opposite camp. Katniss and Peeta are portrayed as symbol of hope among several negative things. They are competent in fighting the negativity that exists in their districts. Both possess several qualities and these qualities make them the winner (Collins).
The novel appears to be entertaining readers in an impressive manner. The author has succeeded in portraying poverty, hunger, starvation and repression in a realistic manner. The novel also educates about negative effects of animosity and war. The author describes how people of the districts used to survive in sporadic conditions while the capitol used to enjoy everything on the resources of these districts (Collins).
Collins has portrayed the events of the story in a manner that keeps readers excited. The author has portrayed the hunger games as inhuman event but at the same time she makes it excited and readers like it. The selection of characters and portrayal of events is fascinating. The author also suggests readers to think about the events like the hunger games and creates a sense of awareness about aspects of such events. The dual face of the society is portrayed in an interesting manner.
Katniss evaluates and understands each and every situation with open head and then acts accordingly. The author appears to be a feminist who has used her central character to portray the women in an empowered way. The author conveys a message to the readers and educates them how to deal and act in a given situation. Portrayal of Katniss in the leading role is not only symbolic but it also represents the author’s mentality (Egan).
‘The Hunger Games’ was published in the year 2008. The book is so interesting and exciting that youngsters preferred this book over video games. Youngsters extended their love for this book and this book became one of the bestsellers of the year. There are several reasons that contribute in the success of this noel. The book narrates different phases in one story which is one of several qualities of the book (Fish). The book was published in a number of languages and also movies were made on this book.
The game, portrayed in this book reminds readers about roman wars and other wars that used to take place in the ancient times. These bloody wars always attracted people and portrayal of such brutal game fascinates the readers in a substantial way. It reminds readers about gladiators who used to kill people just in order to entertain them. They used to kill other warriors brutally and the survivor was declared as the winner.
The book reminds about ancient era on hand while it also describes the modern society. People are living the mid of every modern amenities that are part of modern life. The society and the capitol is full of technology and facilities. People of the capitol are obsessed with the television show that portrays the game (Fish). They love to see warriors fighting to death on their television sets. Audiences choose their favorite characters and used to see them winning and killing others.
People always like to see violence on televisions and screens. They also love to read about different types of violence. Since this novel catered violence throughout the book, people liked the book. Different kinds of violence have been portrayed in the book to attract readers (Collins). The starvation, poverty and fight to death are violent activities that entertain readers on one hand while on the other hand; these violent activities compel readers to think about several other things.
Having observed the succinct analysis of the book, ‘The Hunger Games’, it can be concluded that the author has presented an entertaining book that attracts the readers. Every aspect of the book is well knitted and the story is the strongest point of the novel. The author appears to be portraying women in a central role. Collins has portrayed a woman in the main role of the story that is very smart, confident, and brave and can deal with any situation that comes in front of her.
Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2008.
Egan, Kate. The Hunger Games: Official Illustrated Movie Companion. USA: Scholastic Inc., 2012.
Fish, Stanley. "The New York Times." 7 May 2012. opinionator.blogs.nytimes. 26 March 2014 <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/staging-the-self-the-hunger-games/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.
