Summary: About the HUNGER GAMES
In this gripping young adult novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present, the nation of Panem consists of a shining Capitol surrounded by 12 outlying Districts, in the ruins of the area once known as North America.
In this stratified society where the Capitol controls all resources, 16-year-old Katniss and her friend Gale forage for food in the woods surrounding their impoverished District. The main support for both their families, Katniss and Gale are apprehensive about the approaching annual Reaping, when two “tributes” between the ages of 12 and 18 will be chosen by lottery from each of the 12 districts to compete in The Hunger Games, a survival contest on live TV in which teenagers fight to the death. When her beloved younger sister Prim is chosen as one of the “tributes,” Katniss volunteers to go in her sister’s place. Her fellow tribute from District 12 is Peeta, a boy with whom she soon develops a complicated relationship. After traveling to the Capitol and undergoing elaborate training and preparation, Katniss and Peeta are launched into the Game. In the terrifying events that follow, Katniss must marshal all her skills to stay alive and all her emotions to remain a caring human being in the face of the stark brutality of the Games.
Discussion Questions for The Hunger Games
1. How does Katniss feel about the country of Panem? Why does she need to make her face “an indifferent mask” and be careful what she says in public?
2. Describe Katniss’s relationships with Gale, with Prim,and with her mother. How do those relationships define her personality? Why does she say about Peeta, “I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people”? How does her early encounter with Peeta affect their relationship after they are chosen as tributes?
3. How does the fact that the tributes are always on camera affect their behavior from the time they are chosen? Does it make it easier or harder for them to accept their fate? How are the “career tributes” different from the others?
4. Why are the “tributes” given stylists and dressed so elaborately for the opening ceremony? Does this ceremony remind you of events in our world, either past or present? Compare those ceremonies in real life to the one in the story.
5. When Peeta declares his love for Katniss in the interview, does he really mean it or did Haymitch create the “star-crossed lovers” story? What does Haymitch mean when he says, “It’s all a big show. It’s all how you’re perceived”? Why do they need
to impress sponsors and what are those sponsors looking for when they are watching the Games?
6. Before the Games start, Peeta tells Katniss, “. . . I want to die as myself . . . I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.” What does this tell you about Peeta? What does he fear more than death? Is he able to stay true to himself during the Games?
7. Why does Katniss ignore Haymitch’s advice to head directly away from the Cornucopia? Did she do the right thing to fight for equipment? What are the most important skills she has for staying alive? Her knowledge of nature? Her skill with a bow and arrow? Her trapping ability? What qualities of her personality keep her going? Her capacity for love? Her intelligence? Her self-control?
8. Why does Peeta join with the Career Tributes in the beginning of the Games? What does he hope to gain? Why do they accept him when they start hunting as a group? Why do groups form in the beginning when they know only one of them will be able to survive?
9. What makes Katniss and Rue trust each other to become partners? What does Katniss gain from this friendship besides companionship? Is Katniss and Rue’s partnership formed for different reasons than the other groups’?
10. Discuss the ways in which the Gamemakers control the environment and “entertainment” value of the Games. How does it affect the tributes to know
they are being manipulated to make the Games more exciting for the gamblers and viewers? Does knowing that she is on live TV make Katniss behave differently than she would otherwise?
11. When does Katniss first realize that Peeta does care for her and is trying to keep her alive? When does she realize her own feelings for him? Did Haymitch
think all along that he could keep them both alive by stressing the love story? Are they actually in love?
12. What do you think is the cruelest part of the Hunger Games? What kind of people would devise this spectacle for the entertainment of their populace? Can you see parallels between these Games and the society that condones them, and other related events and cultures in the history of the world?
13. In 1848, Karl Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Discuss this
statement as it applies to the society and government of Panem. Do you believe there is any chance to eradicate class struggles in the future?
14. Reality TV has been a part of the entertainment world since the early days of television (with shows such as Candid Camera and the Miss America Pageant), but in the 21st century there has been a tremendous growth of competitive shows and
survival shows. Discuss this phenomenon with respect to The Hunger Games. What other aspects of our popular culture do you see reflected in this story?
Historical and Literary Connections
The Hunger Games trilogy provides many interesting analogies to historical events and literary classics through the ages.
Greek Legend
Suzanne Collins was inspired by the Greek legend of King Minos of Crete who demanded that seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls be sacrificed periodically in the Labyrinth of the Minotaur—until the hero Theseus volunteered to go in place of one of the youths and was able to slay the monster. The story can be studied in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. A fictionalized version is Mary Renault’s The King Must Die.
The Roman Empire
Study of the Roman Empire will yield many connections to The Hunger Games trilogy—the autocratic rule of the Capitol, the political machinations of President Snow, training of youth for a fight to the death to amuse the Capitol’s citizens, and the politics of the rebellion. Even the name of the country, Panem, comes from the Roman phrase, “panem et circenses”—the bread and circuses which the Romans provided to control the population by keeping them contented and entertained. Classic novels such as Howard Fast’s Spartacus and Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and Claudius the God will enhance those connections.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc is an historical figure brought to mind by Katniss and the way she is manipulated for political and tactical reasons. Compare Joan’s peasant upbringing,
determination, and sheer grit in the face of her enemies in the 15th century to the role Katniss takes on for the rebellion in Mockingjay.
Shakespeare
There are a number of themes in Shakespeare’s plays that can be compared with The Hunger Games trilogy. Read Julius Caesar for the Roman connection and the theme of the downfall of the powerful. Compare Snow’s hold on the presidency to the tragic results of ambition and thirst for power in Macbeth. The star-crossed lover
theme can be compared to Romeo and Juliet, and the effort involved in bringing down a despotic ruler plays out in Richard the III. For another view of Richard III,
see Josephine Tey’s compelling mystery The Daughter of Time (Touchstone, 1995), exploring the idea that history is written by the victors in any conflict.
War Poetry and Music
Wilfred Owen, a young man who fought and died in the trenches of Europe in World War I, wrote poignant poetry about the futility of war. His poems were used as text
for Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, written for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, an historic building destroyed in the Battle of Britain during World War II. Find out more at http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/britwar.html
Modern Literary Connections
In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, set during the Dust Bowl years in the United States, ordinary people struggle to stay alive in the Great Depression. Steinbeck vividly depicts the conflicts between poor farmers, bankers, and property owners. The futuristic novels Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty- Four, and Fahrenheit 451 all reflect the rigid control and stratified society that we see in The Hunger Games trilogy, while Lord of the Flies explores how vicious young people can become when forced to survive in a wilderness setting. Research the cultures in their own lives and times that led Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and William Golding to create these bleak novels.“The Lottery,” a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in The New Yorker in 1948, is a chilling tale of
ritualistic murder committed as a fertility rite in smalltown America (The Lottery and Other Stories, 2nd edition, by Shirley Jackson, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2005).
