It's not often these days that I get to sit down to read a book for entertainment purposes, so when I began "The Hunger Games" two days ago, I was set and determined to get it finished. It didn't take much to push myself, as I got sucked into the story fairly quickly.
I'll be honest - I really am not a fan of the dystopic. I didn't like "The City of Ember," "The Road" really freaked me out, and don't even get me started on "The Giver." There's something about the unfamiliar and depressing, and the things that are completely the fault of the human race that makes me lose faith for awhile. "The Road" is about the aftermath of what is surmised to be a gigantic nuclear warhead that took out most of North America. I've taken World History and seen "Dr. Strangelove," and the Cold War was just the beginning of the human race having the ability to destroy the modern world as we know it. Distopic fiction looks at how society is deconstructed after a man-made disaster.
I'm not sure why I like "The Hunger Games" so much. It might be the protagonist, a hard-working young woman from the poorest District who takes her younger sister's place in the Games because of her love and need to protect her.
Katniss Everdeen is the hardened girl from District 12, the coal mining district on the outskirts of civilization in what used to be the Appalachian Mountains. She goes out to hunt in the forests near the Seam where she lives to provide for her family and to sell on the black market. She is resourceful and kind to those she cares about.
As readers, we feel for Katniss because even though she lives in a different sort of world than us, she faces the same challenges. There are loads of expectations thrown on her when she steps in as tribute, but even before this she has responsibility in her family situation. She hunts illegally to support her depressed mother and younger sister, the three of them left to make it on their own after Katniss' father was killed in a mine explosion. It's something that people in America face today, as has been witnessed in the 5 April mine explosion in West Virginia killed at least 29 workers. Collins was able to pull current problems like poverty and work-related accidents that affect families and weave them into her story to reinforce that socially the world can indeed come to be like that if we let it.
It's probably the writing style and storyline that does it for me. It makes you fully aware of the state of Katniss' life in District Twelve, and follows her through the Hunger Games. The country Panem, where the story is set, had once been North America, but due to "the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained" has dramatically altered the countryside. We aren't told if these are the result of human exploitation of the earth, speeding up the natural processes, but it seems likely, what with the speed at which we as an industrial power strip the earth of its resources. We've already seen in the Dust Bowl what kind of damage can be done by not replenishing what we take. Cutting down trees that block the wind and squeezing all of the nutrients and minerals out of soil causes land to erode and make floods and infertile land. By depleting resources and exploiting the earth's surface, we invite natural disasters and the resulting fatalities.
Besides her careful deconstruction and rebuilding of society in this new North America, Collins also brings in different ways to look at different situations and emotions, and I think that's where I really began to enjoy the book. It's doom and gloom, but not insofar as other dystopic novels. In "The Hunger Games" there is hope, hidden in the games of cutthroat survival. We have faith in Katniss and the other District 12 tribute, Peeta, and that their plan will work. We hope, while we read, that she can not only survive the Hunger Games, but her own emotions and internal struggle.
Try this book if you liked: The Protector of the Small quartet by Tamora Pierce.
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