Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Book Review: Hunger Games Part I

Halfway through the book, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, a lot of major themes have already popped up out of the book. The setting takes place in an nation known as Panem, sometime in the future. The once thriving United States no longer thrives and a form of government cruel to its people has arose. People are separated and put into districts, where they are limited of food, water, and shelter. Young children are sent out to provide food for their families, as is the situation of the main character Katniss, and failing in doing so can result in starvation for the whole family.
     
Going back to the themes brought up in the book, we can see that the main character demonstrates a theme of Independence and leadership. At the age of fifteen, she has become the head of the family, bringing home firewood, bread, and whatever is available in the black market created in the society made by the government:
“Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market’s still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt” (pg. 11).
In the black market, Katniss at a young age has to provide food for her younger sister and mom. Without Katniss’s self-preservation and leadership, her family will instantly fall apart.


The book also brings up the theme of government control. Instead of a world where the people make up the voice, the people of Panem are treated like slaves. They are separated into districts and each year, the Hunger Games occur in which a boy and girl from each district enters and fights for their lives until the last one standing. The government has made the situation into a Olympic like scenario, in which they hold festivals for the Hunger Games when truly, the people of Panem despise of it. Unfortunately, any word of resentment coming out of the mouths of the people of Panem and they will be immediately executed publicly, to set an example of what can happen to others:
“Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion” (pg. 18).
By the looks of things so far in the book, there have been a lot of foreshadowing showing possible themes of love and betrayal while at the same time, anything can happen.

3 comments:

  1. This book is soooo goood! Describe more about what is the games going to be about. Also, connect the government in the book to the government today. You are going to like this book. You should talk about how people are separated on how they work and way the people are getting treated in the society.

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  2. From Crystal:

    Camal, I hope you find this (I tried posting my comment about 15 times and it still wouldn't work on your blog...):
    This is a very good start in analyzing the major concurrent themes in the novel that you are reading. Your comment about the theme of government control is an idea that would work well in your final book review. Something that you might want to expand on would be the leadership and independence that Katniss exhibits throughout the novel. You have a good start, however, simply supporting her family may not be as strong a point as would an analysis of her participation in the Hunger Games would be. A potential point that you can write about can be a fusion of the two points you mention here: the effects of Katniss's leadership and independence clashing against the ideals of a tyrannical government. Finally, something that I think you should clarify is the derivation of the government that you talked about and why is it that this government was formed, what contributed to this? (i.e. military power, political conflicts,etc.)

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  3. In part one it started to talk about Katniss's experience with the capitol practice and parts of the training that she went through. Also because the title is Hunger Games you should describe the games too. Then lead it into he independence in the games. Also I suggest you to put in the scene with where she stand up and takes her sister's place in the games, about how she got to the games. Also how she stands up and take leadership. I t can also relate to what you wrote about her and her family's relationship.

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