The Hunger Games is a young adult novel written by American
television writer and novelist Suzanne Collins. It was first published on
September 14, 2008, by Scholastic, in hardcover. It is written in the voice of
16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the
country of Panem where the countries of North America once existed. The
Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, holds hegemony over the rest of the
nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged
12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by
lottery to compete in a televised battle until only one person is left.
The book has been released as a paperback and also as an
audiobook and e-book. The Hunger Games had an initial print of 200,000 – twice
doubled from the original 50,000. Since its initial release, the novel has been
translated into 26 languages and rights of production have been sold in 38
countries. The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and
authors. The Hunger Games is the first novel in The Hunger Games trilogy, followed
by Catching Fire, published on September 1, 2009, and Mockingjay, published on
August 24, 2010.
A film adaptation, co-written and co-produced by Collins
herself and directed by Gary Ross, was released worldwide on March 23, 2012.
Contents
Inspiration and origins
Collins says that the inspiration to write The Hunger Games
came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing
on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq. The
two "began to blur in this very unsettling way" and the idea for the
book was formed. The Greek myth of Theseus served as the basis for the story,
with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and that Roman
gladiatorial games formed the framework. The sense of loss that Collins
developed through her father's service in the Vietnam War also affected the
story, whose heroine lost her father at age 11, five years before the story
begins. Collins stated that the deaths of the young characters and other
"dark passages" were the hardest parts of the book to write, but she
had accepted passages such as these were necessary to the story. She considered
the moments where Katniss reflects on happier moments in her past to be the
more enjoyable.
Plot
The Hunger Games takes place in a nation known as Panem,
after the destruction of North America by some unknown apocalyptic event. Panem
consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts under
the Capitol's hegemony. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the
coal-rich region that was formerly Appalachia.
As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol
in which a 13th district was destroyed, one boy and one girl between the ages
of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by annual lottery to participate
in the Hunger Games. This is an event in which the participants (or
"tributes") must fight in an outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol,
until only one individual remains. The story is narrated by 16-year-old Katniss
Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th annual Hunger
Games in place of her younger sister, Prim. Also selected from District 12 is
Peeta Mellark, a baker's son whom Katniss knows from school, and who once gave
her bread when her family was starving.
Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol where their
drunken mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, victor of the 50th Hunger Games, instructs
them to watch and learn the talents of the other tributes. They are then
publicly displayed to the Capitol audience in a televised session with
interviewer Caesar Flickerman. During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his
longtime unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss believes this to be a ploy to
gain audience support for him in the Games, which can be crucial for survival,
as audience members are encouraged to send gifts such as food, medicine, and
tools to favored tributes during the Games. While nearly half the tributes are
killed in the first day of the Games alone, Katniss relies on her
well-practiced hunting and outdoor skills to survive. A few days into the
games, Katniss develops an alliance with Rue, a 12-year-old girl from the
agricultural District 11 who reminds Katniss of her sister, Primrose. The
alliance is short-lived; Rue is killed by another tribute. At Rue's request
Katniss sings to her, then spreads flowers over her body as a sign of
respect—and of disgust towards the Capitol.
Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta's beloved image in the
minds of the audience as "star-crossed lovers", a rule change is
announced midway through the Games, stating that two tributes from the same
district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches
for Peeta and eventually finds him wounded. As she nurses him back to health,
she acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the
audience and consequently gifts from her sponsors. When the couple remain as
the last two surviving tributes, the Gamemakers reverse the rule change in an
attempt to force them into a dramatic finale, where one must kill the other to
win. Katniss, knowing that the Gamemakers would rather have two victors than
none, retrieves highly poisonous berries known as "nightlock" from
her pouch and offers some to Peeta. Realizing that Katniss and Peeta intend to
commit suicide, the Gamemakers announce that both will be the victors of the
74th Hunger Games.
Although she survives the ordeal in the arena and is treated
to a hero's welcome in the Capitol, Katniss is warned by Haymitch that she has
now become a political target after defying her society's authoritarian leaders
so publicly. Afterwards, Peeta is heartbroken when he learns that Katniss's
actions in the arena were part of a calculated ploy to earn sympathy from the
audience. However, Katniss is unsure of her own feelings and realizes that she
is dreading the moment when she and Peeta will go their separate ways.
Themes
In an interview with Collins, it was noted that the books
"[tackle] issues like severe poverty, starvation, oppression, and the effects
of war among others. The book deals with the struggle for self-preservation
that the people of Panem face in their districts and the Hunger Games in which
they must participate. The starvation and need for resources that the citizens
encounter both in and outside of the arena create an atmosphere of helplessness
that the main characters try to overcome in their fight for survival. Katniss's
proficiency with the bow and arrow stems from her need to hunt in order to
provide food for her family—this necessity results in the development of skills
that are useful to her in the Games, and represents her rejection of the
Capitol's rules in the face of life-threatening situations.
The choices the characters make and the strategies they use
are often morally complex. The tributes build a personality they want the
audience to see throughout the Games. Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) names the
major themes of The Hunger Games as "government control, 'big brother',
and personal independence." The Capitol makes watching the games required
viewing. The theme of power and downfall, similar to that of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, was pointed out by Scholastic. Laura Miller of the New Yorker
finds that the author's stated premise of the Games -- an exercise in
propaganda and a “humiliating as well as torturous .... punishment” for a
failed uprising against the Capitol many years earlier -- unconvincing.
"You don’t demoralize and dehumanize a subject people by turning them into
celebrities and coaching them on how to craft an appealing persona for a mass
audience." But the story works much better if the theme is vicissitudes of
high school and "the adolescent social experience".
"The rules
are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change. A brutal social
hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking, and the athletic lording
their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake.
Adults don’t seem to understand how high the stakes are; your whole life could
be over, and they act like it’s just some “phase”! Everyone’s always watching
you, scrutinizing your clothes or your friends and obsessing over whether
you’re having sex or taking drugs or getting good enough grades, but no one
cares who you really are or how you really feel about anything."
Donald Brake from The Washington Times, as well as Andy
Langford, a senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church, states that the
story has Christian themes, such as that of self-sacrifice, which is found in
Katniss' substitution for her younger sister, analogous to the sacrifice of
Jesus as a substitute for the atonement of sins. Brake, as well as another
reviewer, Amy Simpson, both find that the story also revolves around the theme
of hope, which is exemplified in the "incorruptible goodness of Katniss'
sister, Primrose." She also states that Peeta Mellark is "a Christ
figure" in the story. Similar to the events in Passion of Jesus, in the
Games, Peeta is stabbed and left for dead after saving Katniss' life—taking the
wound that was initially meant for her—and is then buried in the ground and
placed in a cave for three days before emerging with a new lease on life. Moreover,
the Christian image of the Bread of Life is used throughout The Hunger Games;
in the story Peeta shows up "bearing a warm loaf of bread," and
Katniss slowly comes "back to life." A news video starring Fr.
Jonathan Morris aired on Fox News discussed the religious themes in the story
further. In addition, some pastors have written Bible studies discussing the
Christian allegories in the story.
Publication history
The Hunger Games was first published as a hardcover in the
United States on September 14, 2008. An audiobook version was released in
December 2008, and is read by Carolyn McCormick. A trade paperback edition of
the book was released on July 6, 2010.
Audiobook
An audiobook version of The Hunger Games was released in
December 2008, which is read by Carolyn McCormick, and runs at about eleven
hours, ten minutes. The magazine AudioFile said: "Carolyn McCormick gives
a detailed and attentive narration. However, she may rely too much on the
strength of the prose without providing the drama young adult listeners often
enjoy." School Library Journal also praised her performance: "Carolyn
McCormick ably voices the action-packed sequences and Katniss's every fear and
strength shines through, along with her doomed growing attraction to one of her
fellow Tributes."
Sales
After writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal
for three books with Scholastic in 2006. The first book originally had a 50,000
first printing, which was then bumped up twice to 200,000 copies. By February
11, 2010, The Hunger Games had sold 800,000 copies and rights to the novel had
been sold in 38 territories.By November 2008, The Hunger Games became a The New
York Times Best Seller.By September 2010, The Hunger Games was on The New York
Times list for over 100 consecutive weeks, though it subsequently fell from the
list. By the time the movie for The Hunger Games was released, the book had
been on USA Today's best-selling books list for 135 consecutive weeks, and the
publisher reported 26 million Hunger Games trilogy books in print, including
movie tie-in books.
The Hunger Games trilogy has sold exceptionally well in
ebook format. Suzanne Collins is the first children's or young adult author to
sell over one million Kindle ebooks, making her the sixth author to join the
"Kindle Million Club", which recognizes authors who have sold over 1
million paid units in the Amazon Kindle store. In March 2012, Amazon announced
that Collins had become the best-selling Kindle author of all time. Amazon also
revealed that Collins had written 29 of the 100 most-highlighted passages in
Kindle ebooks—and on a separate Amazon list of recently-highlighted passages,
Collins had written 17 of the top 20.
Cover
The cover of The Hunger Games is black, featuring a gold
mockingjay —a crossbreed born from genetically engineered male jabberjays, and
female mockingbirds— with an arrow inscribed in a circle. This is an image of
the pin given to Katniss by the District 12 mayor's daughter, Madge Undersee,
which Katniss wears in the arena. The image matches the description of the pin
that is given in the book, except for the arrow: "It's as if someone
fashioned a small golden bird and then attached a ring around it. The bird is
connected to the ring only by its wing tips."
Critical reception
The Hunger Games has been well-received by critics. In
Stephen King's review for Entertainment Weekly, he praised the book's addictive
quality and also compared it to "shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames in the
lobby of the local eightplex; you know it's not real, but you keep plugging in
quarters anyway." However, he stated that there were "displays of
authorial laziness that kids will accept more readily than adults" and
that the love triangle was standard for the genre. He gave the book an overall
B grade. Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the novel, saying it
is "exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns". The
review also called it one of the best books of 2008. Booklist also gave a
positive review, praising the character violence and romance involved in the
book. In a review for The New York Times, John Green wrote that the novel was
"brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced", and that "the
considerable strength of the novel comes in Collins's convincingly detailed
world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine."
However, he also noted that sometimes the book does not realize the allegorical
potential that the plot has to offer and that the writing "described the
action and little else." Kirkus Reviews gave a positive review, praising
the action and world-building, but pointed out that "poor copyediting in
the first printing will distract careful readers—a crying shame". Time magazine
was positive and praised the hypnotic quality of the violence. Rick Riordan,
author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, claims it is the
"closest thing to a perfect adventure novel" he has ever read.
Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight series) endorsed the book on her
website, saying, "I was so obsessed with this book ...The Hunger Games is
amazing."
The Hunger Games has been criticized for its similarities to
the 1999 novel Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami. Collins has stated, "I
had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in. At
that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it.
He said: 'No, I don't want that world in your head. Just continue with what
you're doing.' " Susan Dominus of The New York Times reports that
"the parallels are striking enough that Collins's work has been savaged on
the blogosphere as a baldfaced ripoff," but argued that "there are
enough possible sources for the plot line that the two authors might well have
hit on the same basic setup independently." King noted that the reality TV
"badlands" were similar to Battle Royale, as well as his own The Running
Man and The Long Walk. Green also pointed out that the premise of the novel was
"nearly identical" to Battle Royale. Eric Eisenberg wrote that The
Hunger Games was "not a rip off [of Battle Royale], but simply a different
usage of a similar idea", pointing out various differences in both story
and themes. Robert Nishimura wrote that "it would be a waste of time to
defend Battle Royale from plagiarism, since The Hunger Games has an entirely
different set of cultural baggage, as well as being a disservice to countless
other source material that deal with the exact same subject matter. Collins
just happened to tap in to the creative collective consciousness, drawing on
ideas that have played out many times before, in addition to her intentional reference
to Greek mythology."
The novel has also been controversial; it ranked in fifth place on the American
Library Association's list of frequently challenged books for 2010, with the
reasons: "sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence."
Awards
The Hunger Games received a number of awards and honors. It
was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008
and a The New York Times "Notable Children's Book of 2008". It was
the 2009 winner of the Golden Duck Award in the Young Adult Fiction Category.
The Hunger Games was also a "2008 Cybil Winner" for fantasy and
science-fiction books along with The Graveyard Book. It is also one of School
Library Journal's "Best Books 2008" and a "Booklist Editors'
Choice" in 2008. In 2011, the book won the California Young Reader Medal.
In the 2012 edition of Scholastic's Parent and Child magazine, The Hunger Games
was listed as the 33rd best book for children, with the award for "Most
Exciting Ending".
Article Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games
