The Hunger Games (novel)
The
Hunger Games is a 2008 dystopian novel by the American writer Suzanne
Collins. It is written in the voice of
16-year-old Katniss Everdeen,
who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control
over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one
boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding
the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle
royale to the death.
The
book received critical acclaim from major reviewers and authors. It was praised
for its plot and character development. In writing The Hunger Games,
Collins drew upon Greek mythology,
Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary reality television
for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers
Weekly's "Best Books of the
Year" in 2008.
The
Hunger Games was first published in hardcover on
September 14, 2008, by Scholastic,
featuring a cover designed by Tim O'Brien. It has since been released in paperback and also as an audiobook and ebook.
After an initial print of 200,000, the book had sold 800,000 copies by February
2010. Since its release, The Hunger Games has been translated into 26
languages, and publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The
novel is the first in The Hunger Games
trilogy, followed by Catching
Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). A film adaptation,
directed by Gary Ross
and co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012.
Background
Collins
has said that the inspiration for 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.[2] The Greek
myth of Theseus served as a major basis for the story, with Collins
describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and Roman gladiatorial games provided the framework. The sense of loss that
Collins developed through her father's service in the Vietnam
War was also an influence on the story,
with Katniss having lost her father at age 11, five years before the story
begins.[3] Collins stated that the deaths of young characters and
other "dark passages" were the most difficult parts of the book to
write, but that she had accepted that passages such as these were necessary to
the story.[4] She considered the moments where Katniss reflects on
happier moments in her past to be more enjoyable.[4]
Plot
See also: The Hunger Games universe
In
the nation of Panem, established in the remains of North
America after an unspecified apocalyptic event, the wealthy Capitol exploits the twelve surrounding
districts for their natural resources and labour.[5] District 12 is in the coal-rich region that was once Appalachia, while the Capitol is in the Rocky
Mountains.[6] As punishment for a past failed rebellion against the Capitol, which resulted in the obliteration of
District 13, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of
the 12 remaining districts are selected by an annual lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, a contest in which the
"tributes" must fight to the death in an outdoor arena until only one
remains.
The
story is narrated by 16-year-old Katniss
Everdeen from District 12, who volunteers
for the 74th Hunger Games in place of her 12-year-old sister, Primrose. The male tribute is Peeta
Mellark, a former schoolmate of Katniss who
once gave her bread from his family's bakery when her family was starving. In
the days leading up to the Games in the Capitol, they are given advice by their
drunken mentor, Haymitch Abernathy,
the sole living District 12 victor of the Hunger Games; chaperone Effie
Trinket; and various stylists to enhance
their public perception to get potential sponsors, who will send potentially
life-saving gifts during the Games. Katniss's stylist, Cinna, designed special costumes for Katniss and Peeta that set
them apart from the tributes when introduced to the public. During their
evaluation by the Gamemakers, Katniss unexpectedly gets the highest score among
the others. Meanwhile, Rue, the petite 12-year-old girl tribute from District
11, follows Katniss and Peeta around during the training sessions. On the day
before the games, in the televised interview with Caesar
Flickerman, Peeta reveals his long-unrequited
love for Katniss; she is initially shocked by this and believes this is a ploy
to gain sponsors, but later accepts this as sincere. Haymitch then promotes
their image as "star-crossed lovers".
The
Games begin, and nearly half the tributes are killed in the bloodbath at the
start, fighting over the weapons and supplies throughout the arena. Katniss
disregards Haymitch's earlier advice to flee immediately and nearly dies, but
uses her well-practiced hunting and survival skills to hide in the woods. After
a few days, an artificial fire drives Katniss toward the others. She is spotted
and treed by the "Careers" tributes and Peeta, who seems to have
allied with them. Rue, hiding in a nearby tree, silently alerts Katniss to a
“tracker jacker” nest, which she sends it plummeting down, releasing the flying
insects. Their venom kills one of the careers and drives the others away, but
Katniss is stung and begins hallucinating. Peeta returns, but instead of
killing her, tells her to run away. Katniss later forms an alliance with Rue,
but Rue is fatally wounded by another tribute while Katniss destroys the
careers' supplies. Katniss kills Rue's killer with an arrow, and accompanies
Rue as she dies and spreads flowers over the body to show her defiance against
the Capitol. In gratitude, Rue's district sends Katniss a loaf of bread.
A
rule change is announced, allowing the tributes from the same district to win
as a pair. Katniss finds and nurses a wounded Peeta (who later revealed that he
formed an alliance with the careers to protect Katniss), acting the part of a
girl in love to gain gifts. When the Gamemakers send a delivery of what each
contestant needs most, Katniss risks her life to obtain medicine for Peeta. She
is intercepted by a career tribute Clove, who gloats over Rue's death and tries
to kill Katniss, but is killed by Thresh, the male District 11 tribute, who
spares Katniss for Rue's sake. The medicine saves Peeta's life, and they both
spend time hunting and collecting food.
Katniss
and Peeta become the last two survivors, but the Gamemakers revoke the rule change
to force one to kill the other for a dramatic finale. In defiance, Katniss
prepares to consume the poisonous "nightlock" berries with Peeta.
Realizing they intend to commit suicide so that there will not be a victor for
the games, the Gamemakers declare Katniss and Peeta the victors. Although both
of them receive a hero's welcome as a couple, Katniss is warned by Haymitch
that the Capitol may take action against her for her defiance. Along the way
back to District 12, Peeta is heartbroken to learn that Katniss' actions were
part of a calculated ploy to gain sympathy. Katniss, however, is unsure of her
own feelings and her future.
Themes
In
an interview with Collins, it was noted that the novel "tackles issues
like severe poverty,
starvation, oppression, and the effects of war among others."[7] The novel 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.[2] The citizens' starvation and their need for resources, 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 needs to hunt
to provide food for her family, resulting in the development of skills that are
useful to her in the Games (such as her proficiency with the bow and arrow),
and represents her rejection of the Capitol's rules in the face of
life-threatening situations.[8] On the subject of the Games' parallels with popular
culture, Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly writes that the book "is an incisive satire of reality
television shows", and that the character of Cinna "almost seems like
a contestant on a fascist version of Project
Runway, using Katniss' outfits as a
vehicle to express potentially dangerous ideas."[9]
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.[8] Library journal Voice of Youth Advocates names the major themes of The Hunger Games as
"government control, 'big brother', and personal independence."[10] The trilogy's theme of power and downfall, similar to that
of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,
was pointed out by its publisher Scholastic.[11] Laura Miller of The
New Yorker finds 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– to be 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". Miller writes:
"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."[12]
Donald
Brake from The Washington Times and pastor Andy Langford state 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.[13][14] 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."[15] Simpson also points to events similar to the Passion
of Jesus; in the Games, "Christ
figure" Peeta Mellark is stabbed after warning Katniss to flee for her
life, and is then buried in the ground and placed in a cave for three days
before emerging with a new lease on life.[15] Further, she finds that the Christian image of the Bread
of Life is used throughout The Hunger
Games; in the story, Peeta gives Katniss a loaf of bread, saving the girl
and her family from starvation.[15]
Publication history
After
writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal for three books with
Scholastic. First published as a hardcover in the United States on September
14, 2008, The Hunger Games had a first printing of 50,000 copies,
which was bumped up twice to 200,000 copies.[2] By February 2010, the book had sold 800,000 copies,[16] and rights to the novel had been sold in 38 territories
worldwide.[16] A few months later, in July, the book was released in paperback.[17] The Hunger Games entered the New York Times
Best Seller list in November 2008,[18] where it would feature for over 100 consecutive weeks.[19] By the time the film adaptation
of The Hunger Games was released in March 2012, the book had been on USA
Today's best-sellers list for 135
consecutive weeks and has sold over 17.5 million copies.[20][21]
The
novel is the first in The Hunger Games
trilogy; it is followed by sequels Catching
Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). In March 2012, during the time of The Hunger
Games film's release, Scholastic reported 26 million Hunger Games
trilogy books in print, including movie tie-in books.[22] The Hunger Games (and its sequels) have sold
exceptionally well in ebook
format. Suzanne Collins is the first children's or young adult author to sell
over one million Amazon Kindle
ebooks, making her the sixth author to join the "Kindle Million
Club".[23] In March 2012, Amazon announced that Collins had become the best-selling Kindle
ebook author of all time.[24]
An
audiobook version of The Hunger Games was released in December
2008. Read by the actress Carolyn
McCormick, it has a total running time of
eleven hours and fourteen minutes.[25] 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."[26] School Library Journal also praised the audiobook,
stating that "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."[27]
The
Tim O'Brien-designed cover features a gold "mockingjay"
– a fictional bird in The Hunger Games born by crossbreeding female
mockingbirds and genetically engineered male "jabberjays"
– with an arrow engraved in a circle. This is a depiction of the pin worn by Katniss
into the arena, given to her by the District 12 mayor's daughter, Madge Undersee.[28] The image matches the description of the pin that is given
in the novel, 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."[29]
Critical reception
The
Hunger Games has received critical acclaim. 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, while allegorically rich, the book
sometimes does not realize the allegorical potential that the plot has to offer and that the writing
"described the action and little else."[30] Time magazine's review was also positive, stating that it
"is a chilling, bloody and thoroughly horrifying book" and praising
what it called the "hypnotic" quality of the violence.[31] In Stephen
King's review for Entertainment
Weekly, he 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 a B grade.[32] Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the novel, saying it is "exciting, poignant,
thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns", and called it one of the best
books of 2008.[33] Booklist
also gave a positive review, praising the character violence and romance
involved in the book.[34] 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".[35] 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.[36] 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."[37]
The
Hunger Games received many awards and honors. It
was named one of Publishers
Weekly's "Best Books of the
Year" in 2008[38] and a The New York Times "Notable Children's
Book of 2008".[39] It was the 2009 winner of the Golden
Duck Award in the Young Adult Fiction
Category.[40] The Hunger Games was also a "2008 Cybil
Winner" for fantasy and science-fiction books along with The Graveyard Book,[41] one of School Library Journal's "Best Books
2008",[42] and a "Booklist Editors' Choice" in 2008.[43] In 2011, the book won the California Young Reader Medal.[44] 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".[45][46] The novel is one of the top 5 best selling Kindle books of all time.[47] However, the novel has also been controversial with
parents;[48] it ranked in fifth place on the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged
books for 2010, with "unsuited to age group" and "violence"
being among the reasons cited.[49]
Similarities
of The Hunger Games to Koushun
Takami's 1999 novel Battle Royale have been noted.[50] Collins stated that she "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'." [50] 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" of Battle Royale 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."[51] Stephen King
noted that the reality TV "badlands" were similar to Battle Royale,
as well as his own novels The Running Man and The
Long Walk.[32] The story has also been compared to the 1965 Italian cult
film The 10th Victim
by Elio
Petri, based on Robert
Sheckley's 1953 short story "Seventh
Victim".[52]
Film adaptation
Main article: The Hunger Games (film)
In
March 2009, Lions Gate Entertainment entered into a co-production agreement for
The Hunger Games with Nina
Jacobson's production company Color Force,
which had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the novel a few weeks
earlier.[53][54] The studio, which had not made a profit for five years,
raided the budgets of other productions and sold assets to secure a budget of
$88,000,000 – one of its largest ever[55] – for the film.[56][57] Collins' agent Jason Dravis remarked that "they
[Lionsgate] had everyone but the valet call us" to help secure the
franchise.[57] Intending the film to have a PG-13 rating,[58] Collins adapted the novel for film herself,[53] in collaboration with screenwriter Billy Ray and director
Gary Ross.[59][60] The screenplay remains extremely faithful to the original
novel,[61] with Ross saying he "felt the only way to make the
film really successful was to be totally subjective" in its presentation
of events, echoing Collins' use of first person
present
in the novel.[62]
Twenty-year-old
actress Jennifer Lawrence
was chosen to play Katniss Everdeen.[63] Though Lawrence was four years older than the character
when filming began,[64] Collins felt the role demanded "a certain maturity and
power" and said she would rather the actress be older than younger.[65] She added that Lawrence was the "only one who truly
captured the character I wrote in the book" and that she had "every
essential quality necessary to play Katniss."[66] Lawrence, a fan of the books, took three days to accept the
role, initially intimidated by the size of the production.[67][68] Josh
Hutcherson and Liam
Hemsworth were later added to the cast, in
the roles of Peeta and Gale, respectively.[69][70] Production began in late spring 2011[71] and the film was released on March 23, 2012.[72] The film's opening weekend brought in a non-sequel record
$152.5 million (USD) in North America.[73] The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire, based on the second novel in the
series, was released the following year on November 22, 2013.[74]
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