What is it about The Hunger Games trilogy that has every one so fascinated they’re even making a movie about it? When it comes to reading this trilogy, I was late to the party. The film had already been cast and people had been buzzing about the books for…oh, uh forever. My sister Marisa read it, next my father grabbed hold of the book and wouldn’t let go, and my nephew had already finished the series and couldn’t stop talking about it. So of course, I put my name on the list to read it next. After reading The Hunger Games I quickly purchased books two and three; Catching Fire and Mockingjay and was riveted. It really is a publisher’s dream; three generations reading a series that was intended for the Young Adult (YA) audience. How did this happen? It happened because Suzanne Collins has created a future world that is terrifying but hints at a world we could possibly live in; a world that could happen to us. It’s a story where the ‘what if’ scenario has a ring of truth to it, and centers around a premise we are all familiar with - Reality TV. Reality television is a big part of our culture, and the people who aspire to be contestants on these shows do so because of the appearance of a ‘barrier barely there’. Where once you would have to work for years to gain a recording contract, be a top chef or own your own design firm – now you can compete with several strangers with the possibility that all your dreams will come true in an instant.
Author Suzanne Collins takes this American obsession to its next logical conclusion. A reality show where the winner must kill every other contestant in order to win. But the contestants don’t freely go to their deaths; they’re drawn from a lottery. In the Hunger Games, the United States as we know it has been destroyed. In its place exists 12 districts ruled by a dictatorial government located in the Capitol, a decadent place where life is easy, food is abundant and entertainment comes in the form of watching the nationally televised Hunger Games. A yearly must watch event where two teenagers are selected from each district to compete in a manmade arena and fight each other to the death – the last person standing wins. The heroine, Katniss Everden, is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 who takes her younger sister’s place as one of the 24 ‘tributes’ selected to participate and finds herself in a vortex of oppression, deceit and a revolution she’s not sure she wants to take part in.
The idea that 12-18 year-olds would be forced to fight to the death is shocking, but captures the imagination because it is a harmonic of what we’re already ‘enjoying’ on television today. It wasn’t too long ago that I read there were actual negotiations to feature death row executions on television. I guess they had a problem programming 6 to 12 episodes, because to my knowledge there aren’t that many executions in a year. I’m not making light of it, but we have seen some pretty outrageous behavior on television – Fear Factor anyone? You might remember the short lived show Married by America where America voted on two total strangers to be married on the spot. Temptation Island brought four couples to a tropical paradise, and the winner was ‘crowned’ if he/she abstained from having sexual relations with someone other than who they came with. Jersey Shore didn’t become a phenomenon until Snookie had a fist-fight with another woman at a bar – and then the ratings sky rocketed. Really? You can’t make this stuff up – and that’s why I think Suzanne Collins’ trilogy about a dystopian society that has gone over the edge of morality speaks volumes to what we’re all about today – we are blithely slipping down the cobblestone steps toward the Roman Forum.
I’m not standing on a soap box preaching the evils of television entertainment, I am saying that this book, written for the young adult market has grabbed hold because it mirrors our society and the reflection staring back at us isn’t a pretty one.
What do you think? Does this trilogy reflect some aspect of our current world?
Maria Lokken is an avid romance reader and an award winning television producer
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