Everyone's talking about The Hunger Games. Everyone has been talking about The Hunger Games since they hit the young adult lit. market like a virus. Touted as the new Harry Potter or Twilight, this series of books is so appealing that people who hate books or don't read are succumbing to the temptation to read them. I have been meaning to see what the hype is about for a while now, but it wasn't until the impending release of the first movie that I was inspired to read the series before the movie came out (I make it a habit to always read the book before the movie).
From the first few pages I was completely hooked--can't-tear-my-eyes-away hooked. The first book, The Hunger Games, is unlike any book I have ever read. When Suzanne Collins made the decision to write her novels in the present tense, she incited new take on the genre of young adult adventure novels. No matter what her authorial intent, write the novels in this way, make for a completely gripping story. As I hurriedly flipped the pages of her novel, I became Katniss Everdeen. This complete immersion is possible because the reader is there with Katniss going through every motion, thinking every thought and planning her next move. This was a reading experience that I have not encountered before--and consequently one that made me envision myself playing a video game or watching a movie of the events as they were unfolding...which made seeing the movie so exciting.
I have just mentioned that I felt like I was in a video-game while reading this novel. There were many elements that caused this sensation for me: the games can only have one winner; the players have to gain favor with sponsors who will pay for medicine; they have to wait and rest to restore their "health;" there are many curve-balls thrown at them from the gamemakers and so on and so forth. Aware of it or not, I personally think that this is one reason why these books are so appealing to the young adult culture at this moment in time. Anyway, enough with my random thoughts about why it is so popular...
All of the appealing elements aside, The Hunger Games represents a very real and very scary picture of what our country could become. The country of Panem, where the twelve districts in the series exist, is a futuristic North America. This country's government and climate resemble that of the one George Orwell wrote about in 1984, and other young adult literature authors have taken his same themes, however, not to this extreme. A country where they hold games and force children to fight to the death? A country where there is no hope for improving yourself, you are simply stuck in the class or profession you are born into; a country where orphans and widows and the poor are left to starve while those in the far-off capitol force them selves to vomit so they can eat as much as they want. The so-called "peacekeepers" in the series are a replacement for combined law-enforcement, but they frequently participate in prostitution and have virtually no checks on their power and the amount of violence they can perform against unarmed and innocent civilians--besides all of that, you are constantly being watched by the president for fear there may be an uprising.
The premise of the book may seem like an outlandish, unbelievable scenario, but if we truly think about it, is it really? Just taking recent developments in our country as examples, the shooting of a young black boy by a "neighborhood" watchman, the brutal shooting a few months ago of a black veteran by racist police officers, and the recent Supreme Court decision that police officers can strip-search people stopped for minor violations with no real probable cause. Though we do not outwardly select our children to fight to the death as a lesson in obedience, we allow are young men and women to go abroad and fight and die for causes that are not their own. We desensitize our children to violence through a multitude of media, and we are forced to eliminate empathy and compassion from the education of our children for the higher goal of "global competition."
There is a reason why so many can imagine worlds where our basic rights as human beings are violated on a daily basis, and that reason is staring us right in the face. I am glad that Suzanne Collins wrote such a bold book, and I hope that those who read her books, see the real warnings they hold for our generation and for our government.
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