About the Author
Suzanne Collins is an American author and television writer. She is known as the author of the book series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games is the first book in the series and was released on September 14, 2008.
Summary
The Hunger Games follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th Hunger Games in place of her younger sister Primrose Everdeen. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, who once saved Katniss from starvation when they were children. They are mentored by their district’s only living victor, Haymitch Abernathy, who won 24 years earlier and has since led a lonely life.
Peeta confesses his crush on Katniss in a televised interview before the Games. This fact stuns Katniss, who usually does not allow herself to think of this due to her traumatic childhood and her fear of losing future children to the Hunger Games. However, she believes that Peeta is only feigning love for her as a tactic for the Games.
In the arena, Peeta saves Katniss’s life multiple times without her realizing. Katniss allies with Rue, a young tribute from District 11 who reminds Katniss of her sister. When Rue is killed, Katniss places flowers around her body as an act of defiance toward the Capitol. The remaining tributes are alerted to a rule change allowing tributes from the same district to win as a team. Katniss finds a seriously wounded Peeta, and, rather than compete alone and be unencumbered by him, she risks her life and nurses him back to health. Haymitch advises her to feign feelings for Peeta in order to gain wealthy sponsors who can provide crucial supplies to the “star-crossed lovers” during the Games. As she allows herself to become better friends with Peeta, she develops real feelings for him.
When all of the other tributes are dead, the rule change is abruptly revoked. With neither willing to kill the other, Katniss comes up with a solution: a double suicide by eating poisonous berries. This forces the authorities to say that they have both won the Games, just in time to save their lives. During and after the Games, Katniss’s genuine feelings for Peeta grow, and she struggles to order them with the fact that their relationship developed under pressure.
Haymitch warns her that the danger is far from over. The authorities are furious at being made fools, and the only way to try to reduce their anger is to continue to pretend that her actions were because of her love for Peeta and nothing else. On the journey home, Peeta is dismayed to learn of the deception.
Setting
The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in an unspecified future time, in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, located in North America. The country consists of a wealthy Capitol city, located in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by twelve (originally thirteen) poorer districts ruled by the Capitol. The Capitol is very rich and technologically advanced, but the districts are in varying states of poverty. The trilogy’s narrator and protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12, the poorest region of Panem, located in Appalachia, where people regularly die of starvation. As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol (called the “Dark Days”), in which District 13 was destroyed, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve remaining districts, between the ages of 12 and 18, are selected by lottery to compete in an annual pageant called the Hunger Games. The Games are a televised event in which the participants, called “tributes”, are forced to fight to the death in a dangerous public arena. The winning tribute and his or her home district are then rewarded with food, supplies, and riches. The purposes of the Hunger Games are to provide entertainment for the Capitol and to remind the districts of the Capitol’s power and its lack of forgiveness for the failed rebellion of the current competitors’ ancestors.
Main Characters
Conflict
The main conflict in The Hunger Games is man against society, or in Katniss’s case, woman against society. The Games are tools of the dystopian society, and they are used in such a manner that creates terribly conflict for young people who are randomly selected as tributes to fight to the death of one or the other.
Solution
Katniss and Peeta are restored to health. She decides to embrace the illusion of love that she’s developed when she learns from Haymitch that the Capitol is angry with what they did with the berries.
Main Message
The moral of The Hunger Games is that violence leaves scars and that a revolution cannot be accomplished without personal sacrifice. Love and compassion (embodied by the character of Peeta) are the only elements which can counter and ease the pain caused by war and violence. The Games were created as a reminder to the districts of their powerlessness after their uprising against the Capitol ended in defeat, and it is the children of the districts who are drafted involuntarily into the Games to be killed. Katniss’ purpose in life is caring for her family, and her inner strength during her challenge comes from the desire to take care of her younger sister, Primrose, and her mother. Katniss faces multiple crushing setbacks, yet she never, never gives up. And she never feels sorry for herself. Katniss symbolizes defiance of the Capitol and the rebellion working to bring it down, though she isn’t even aware of the full extent of this symbolism for much of the novel. At the end of the Hunger Games, Katniss defied the Capitol’s rules by threatening to commit suicide with Peeta. How power can be abused by corrupt governments is one of the ideas explored in The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games also explores ideas of wealth. The Hunger Games is an example of violence and cruelty.
Review
The Hunger Games is no question the absolute greatest book of all time. When I finished this book I couldn’t help but immediately start the next. It’s packed with action, love, emotion, and so much more. And every time you feel ready to put down the book, something happens and you just have to keep reading! Not to mention all of the characters’ personalities are wonderfully laid out. Katniss is such an amazing role model too! She reflects so much determination, passion, courage, and love. I highly suggest that if you haven’t read this book that you immediately read it. You won’t regret it! There is a movie too, so if you want, you can watch it.
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