Alan Ruff - Hunger and Religion in The Hunger Games

“The Hunger Games” by Susan Collins is a novel that depicts a dystopian future in North America.  The new nation, now referred to as Panem, is ruled by people who live in the Capitol City.  Our protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a citizen of District 12, where she says, “you can starve to death in safety.”  It is her hunger for food, and for survival, that continue to drive her as we read through the story.  The theme of hunger, the lack of food that it represents, and the motivator it becomes are carried throughout the story.  There is also very strong Christian symbolism portrayed in the novel even though there isn’t an overt inclusion of religion in the story.

                The novel opens with Katniss hunting for food in the woods just outside the fences of District 12.  A lack of food in District 12 has forced her to supplement the family’s food rations by going outside of the boundaries of the district to hunt wild game.  Her father had taught her to hunt before he was killed in a mining accident.  She begins a relationship with Gale based on each’s need for food and their ability to help each other feed their families.  Katniss sells some of the squirrels she kills to the baker.  It is the baker’s son, Peeta, that is forced to fight for survival with Katniss in The Hunger Games.

                The hunger that Katniss and Peeta live with are placed in stark contrast to the amounts and types of food they find on the train as they travel to the Capitol City.  Katniss is in awe as she walks into the dining car.  “There’s an elegant glass of orange juice.  At least, I think it’s orange juice.  I’ve only even tasted an orange once, at New Year’s when my father bought one as a special treat.”  Fresh fruit is a luxury to Katniss and those from her district.  Effie offends Katniss when she remarks that last year’s tributes “ate like savages.”  Katniss, knows that they had “never, not one day of their lives, had enough to eat.”  This further draws the stark contrast between those who ‘have’ and the ‘have-nots’.

                This novel also contains many Christian themes.  The bible describes pure religion as “taking care of widows and orphans.”  Katniss finds herself in the role of taking care of her widowed mother and her orphaned sister.  The nation has been renamed ‘Panem’ which means ‘bread’ and is a symbol of the manna that is provided to the people wandering in the wilderness seeking the promised land.  Jesus refers to Himself as “the bread of life” and Peeta is known as “the boy with the bread” who offered hope and new life to Katniss when she was starving and ready to lose hope.  Perhaps the most obvious reference to Christianity would be when Katniss volunteers herself as tribute in place of her sister Prim as a propitiation before the Capitol.

                Because I recognized what I felt to be very overt references to Christianity, I was surprised that religion was not used more openly in the novel.  District 12 is placed in the Appalachian region of North America and is recognized in part by its devout religious affiliations as seen in the practice of “snake-handling” in the Church of God.  There is no mention of prayers, faith, or a hope for divine intervention in the midst of such great suffering and tragedy.  It would be understood if the characters were afraid to speak openly of faith out of fear from the government.  It could easily be assumed that a government that wishes to control the actions of its citizens would abolish all forms of religion and seek to place itself in the role of supreme authority.  It could also be that Collins leaves it purposefully ambiguous in an attempt to force the reader to question the text and seek those answers within themselves.