Forget "Harry Potter" and "Twilight. Although it will be feeding off the tween demographic, this franchise will chew up those other guys and spit them out. But what exactly is this "Hunger Games" wonder that has so many folks talking months before the movie which just wrapped up filming earlier this month is even released?
Like many of the wildly successful film franchises these days, it began with a book. Suzanne Collins is the mastermind behind "The Hunger Games" trilogy, which has been gaining momentum over the last few months for both its suspenseful plot and overarching message about society.
The plot revolves around a dystopian society where punishment for a previous rebellion has resulted in a televised event. One boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district there are 12 total are selected at random and forced to participate in the Hunger Games, where "tributes" must fight to the death until only one is left standing. Once inside the death match arena, she must get down and dirty to outlive her competitors, but there's one slight problem.
But maybe you're just getting into The Hunger Games. That's cool — and you have some awesome books and movies to catch up with. Here are some questions you might have. The Hunger Games is a trilogy of young adult, dystopian novels written by Suzanne Collins , a woman previously known for writing for Nickelodeon's early '90s sitcom Clarissa Explains It All. The books envision a dystopian, futuristic United States-like country called Panem that's divided into 12 districts, with a Capitol that rules them, and the terrible game of bloodsport the Capitol makes those districts take part in.
Collins's books have been immensely popular — in Scholastic announced that 50 million copies of the books had been sold — and are now movies. The first book, The Hunger Games, was published in and was turned into a movie in The sequel, Catching Fire , was released in , with a movie following last year. The final book, Mockingjay , will actually be split into two movies with the first chapter hitting theaters today.
They are the crux of Collins's book. In order to keep its stranglehold over the other districts, the Capitol enacts a life-or-death competition called the Hunger Games. Two children — one boy and one girl — from each of the 12 districts are sent into the Games, where they have brutal fights to the death. The Games finish when there's only one child left standing.
The children sent into the Games are called tributes. Tributes can either volunteer or are picked by a random draw. Collins's book explores what happens when Katniss, a girl from impoverished District 12, volunteers in her sister's place in the 74th Hunger Games.
Without giving too much away, the Mockingjay, named for a futuristic bird, is a symbol of rebellion in the third book. Katniss Everdeen, a. The Girl on Fire so named for a dress she wears that appears to engulf her in flames , is the heroine and protagonist of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Jennifer Lawrence plays her in the movies. The role has brought her the immense fame she now has. She's also not inherently likable — and likability is key to the Games. A constant struggle for Katniss is how to make the audience watching like her, and she's aware of this. This weakness leads to her essentially putting on a show and a perosona. These aspects of the books and films make for a canny satire on celebrity culture. Though the most pronounced theme in The Hunger Games is a distrust of adults, authority, and the government, there's also an underlying theme of feminism woven throughout the books.
To fully understand The Hunger Games, you have to consider cultural movements that preceded it. One of the biggest was the Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer's four-part series about a girl named Bella who falls in love with a vampire who wants to spend his eternal life in high school.
Bella pinning her hopes and dreams on an immortal, undead man-boy has drawn criticism for being anti-feminist. Wrote The Guardian's David Cox :. Bella's fate isn't only dispiriting; it's also deceptive. On the whole, beguilement by a teenage bad boy, however courtly his manner, doesn't lead to eternal love; nor is self-abnegation a reliable route to bliss. Thus, The Hunger Games series felt even more seismic than it might have otherwise. It features a love triangle, sure, but it's much less important to the book's overall story.
Katniss is independent. She's a bit abrasive. And she's less interested in love. There's also the world that Collins has created. In the Games, girls are as feared as boys and keep up with them both physically and mentally. Katniss is one of the most fearsome and tactical tributes. But she isn't the only strong female competitor.
Johanna Mason Jena Malone in the films , a major character in the second and third books, wins her games because people think she's weak and keep her around. Enobaria, a past victor, ripped someone's throat out with her teeth to win the games — a move that's as ruthless as the book describes.
And there are other female champions like Mags and Wiress, who managed to win the Games in unconventional ways. Women and girls in the Games are pillars of strength, symbols of hope. They are independent. They're not necessarily perfect — even Katniss is flawed — but they're quite an improvement from many of the works they followed. In her books, Collins focuses on food as a symbol of wealth and inequality. Katniss and others who live in the outer Districts starve, while the Capitol has an abundance of food.
The contrast between these different situations constantly appears in the first two books and is part of the series' political allegory. The relationship people have with food bleeds into the actual Games. Collins points out that the tributes from districts closer to the Capitol, who are used to plenty of food, have a tough time in the Games, because of the general lack of it throughout the competition.
Some past winners win solely because they know how to find food, while others have lost because they ate the wrong thing, like poison berries.
Peeta, pronounced like the pocket of bread that you fill with hummus and falafel, is a boy from District 12 who goes into the Hunger Games with Katniss. He yells at Katniss to run just as Cato, a very large and dangerous Career from District 2, shows up. Peeta stops him so Katniss can escape, and she passes out in a ditch shortly after.
Katniss encounters Rue again, and the two quickly form a bond. They are able to get food hunting and foraging, and Katniss realizes that the Careers would have difficulty surviving without the supplies at the Cornucopia, so she and Rue devise a plan. While Rue lights decoy fires, Katniss sneaks up to the Cornucopia. The supplies are in a pyramid away from the main camp, and after the Careers leave to investigate the fires, Katniss manages to blow up the supplies by cutting open a bag of apples with her arrows, which sets off the mines set to protect the pyramid.
Katniss kills the other tribute, and when Rue dies, she covers her body in flowers. Katniss is depressed all the next day, until an announcement is made that there has been a rule change: Now, two tributes from the same district can be declared winners. Katniss goes looking for Peeta, and it takes her a day but finally she finds him.
Thinking Peeta may die, Katniss impulsively kisses him. A moment later she hears a noise outside and finds a pot of broth sent from Haymitch. She realizes that Haymitch will reward her for playing up the romance between her and Peeta. Another announcement is made, this time saying each tribute will find an item they desperately need at the Cornucopia. Using a sleep syrup sent from Haymitch, Katniss knocks him out.
At the Cornucopia, Katniss tries to run and grab the item marked for District 12, but she gets into a fight with a female tribute. The tribute is about to kill her when Thresh, the male tribute from District 11 who came to the Games with Rue, kills the girl instead. He spares Katniss because of the way she treated Rue, and Katniss makes it back to the cave. She injects Peeta with the medicine just before passing out.
They stay there for a few days while it rains nonstop outside, and in this time the romance between Katniss and Peeta progresses. When the rain lets up, Peeta and Katniss need to find food. Katniss leaves Peeta in charge of foraging while she goes to hunt. She comes back hours later and finds a small pile of poisonous berries Peeta collected thinking they were safe. They discover the body of a tribute who Katniss nicknamed Foxface, and Katniss realizes she died from eating the berries.
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