Hunger Games Book #1

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The Hunger Games series will always be one of my favorite series EVER. I remember when I first heard about the Hunger Games when I was younger and thought the idea of it was the coolest thing ever because I had never seen anything like it before. Up to now, I had only seen the movie, but had never read the book. After reading the book, I did like it as much as I liked the movie, however I do prefer the movies because I am a more visual type of person and they tend to be a bit more on the dramatic side. I actually remember in 8th grade, the regular ELA classes read the Hunger Games and the entire grade watched the movie in the auditorium and even had our own reaping and Hunger Games event with each home room class. It was a very fun way of connecting with the book. The way that author Suzanne Collins portrayed adolescence was very different. Children in this book were publicly picked upon among their peers to participate in basically a death match where only one person can win. As you read, you can only imagine the amount of emotion that were running through those kids, whether you were the one being chosen or not. One of the interesting things that I found while doing research for my Lit Circle Wiki page was idea of classism in the novel. You have higher class districts who will start training their children from the time they are born for the hunger games because of the amount of resources that they have versus the lower class districts who don’t have access to the same amount of resources meaning their children go into the games untrained. Adolescence growing up in the country of Panem do not have a “normal life” like we do. They grow up training or working to provide for their families and watching their peers battle one another in the games being televised into the districts.

Comments

  1. Ally DunlapOctober 18, 2019 at 12:15 PM

    I was the same way! I was so excited to see the Hunger Games movies. It was something different, and dystopian themed books/movies have always been my favorite. If you were to teach this book to your future class, what is a theme you would want to focus on?

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  2. NoahGoodwinOctober 20, 2019 at 10:26 AM

    I love how you mention the theme of classism that is present throughout the novel. So many readers read this book simply because it is a dystopian thriller and tend not to delve deeper into the text. Collins really critiques classist ideals within her writing and ties it in well with her adolescent characters. This would be a good theme to talk about with your students in a future classroom.

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