Year 10 Novel Study: The Hunger Games

Miss Cole

The Hunger Games: The Themes Explored

SURVIVAL
Survival in harsh conditions requires risk taking
Anyone that wishes to survive in a harsh environment needs the necessary skills
and an ability to assess risk and make decisions based on possible consequences
and outcomes. During her time in the arena, Katniss makes several decisions
based on her assessment of the risks involved and the potential for gain. She has
also developed the necessary skills in her early years to help the family survive
and utilises these in ways that both helps them out but also puts her at risk to
some degree.
Katniss provides for her family in district 12 by disobeying the laws and going
through the surrounding fence of the district and goes poaching for food illegally
which could have the punishment of death if she ever got caught. Further, she is
not the only character who must take risks to survive in District 12. Many of the
citizens spend their often-short lives working in the dangerous conditions of the
coal mines to provide for their families.
As the Hunger Games begin, Katniss decides to take a risk and head towards the
Cornucopia and the other tributes before fleeing into the forest to hide, despite
Haymitchs advice. The supplies she gains through this risk are instrumental in
her survival. As she gets deeper into the games it becomes necessary for her to
take more risks, eg. cutting down the tracker jacker nest, blowing up the career
tributes supplies and attending the feast at the Cornucopia.

Some of our closest relationships can be formed through the need

for survival
Many of Katniss's relationships are forged around the need for survival. Katniss
friendship with Gale was forged through their mutual need to survive. Her
relationship with Peeta is shaped by the fact that he helped Katniss and her
family survive after her fathers death by throwing her the bread.

Katniss has difficulty thinking of relationships in terms outside of the need to

survive.
She is constantly questioning Peeta's intentions, believing his pronounced
feelings for her are merely a play for viewer sympathy and a way of getting him
an edge in the competition. However, by the end of the novel Katniss has formed
real and strong relationships with several characters, including Cinna, Rue, Peeta
and even Haymitch.
Year 10 Novel Study: The Hunger Games
Miss Cole

POWER
Inequality is a powerful tool for separation and control
Creating a system where some people feel superior to others, a hierarchy where
some are above others, provides a degree of empowerment for some and
decreases the chances of dissatisfaction, unrest and then rebellion. This system
is used by the Capitol in their numbering and ordering of the different districts.
Most of the population in the Capitol probably feels superior to all the other
districts. Not only do they have the power literally, they also display symbols of
their status and power, a technologically and architecturally superior city. The
Districts are also divided amongst themselves, with the people of Districts One,
Two and Four having access to a much higher standard of living than those of
Districts Eleven and Twelve. While they have plenty of food and are strong and
healthy, Katniss and her family nearly starved to death after her fathers death.
While they can train for The Hunger Games and therefore win most of the time,
the tributes from the other districts must rely on the little training they get once
they reach the Capitol. This inequality creates hatred and suspicion between the
Districts, and ensures that they will not join and rebel against the Capitol.
In other words, a population that are distrustful of each other are also less likely
to work cooperatively to overthrow a ruling power. The Capitol blatantly breed
this contempt between districts through the Hunger Games where citizens are
forced to fight one another... to the death!

Propaganda and the control of information are powerful tools of

control
The Government of the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem has divided the country
into 12 districts. They take orders from all-powerful President Snow, who rules
from The Capitol. The districts are kept from contacting one another, and each is
forced into a particular industry, thus limiting the ability of the people who live in
the districts to socialize with one another. By keeping the citizens distant, and
restricting communications between them, the citizens cannot exchange
knowledge and expertise. They cannot learn about means of transportation,
technology, weapons, and manufacturing. Most importantly they cannot make
psychological and social connections between one another.
Information about population numbers in other districts and where people are
can make communication difficult if someone was to plan a rebellion. Also,
restricting knowledge and the ability to gain expertise in the production of
weapons, transport and technology and even restricting the kinds of texts and
information that might inspire people to rebel, not to mention depriving them of
the time they would need to engage in such texts are all ways keep a population
under control. This type of control then, is both practical and psychological and
takes place primarily through information manipulation and restriction.
By the time Katniss enters the Hunger Games arena, she experienced how
information restriction (including hiding her own emotions) can be used to
control peoples actions. She pretends to be emotionally indifferent, isolates
Year 10 Novel Study: The Hunger Games
Miss Cole

herself from the others, and forces herself to be unsympathetic under pressure.
Part of her growth throughout the novel is the realization that people are better
when they communicate, share information, and act together. She finds she
survives better by forming alliances with Rue and Peeta. One emotionally-
charged moment is when District 11 gifts Katniss bread for her consideration
towards Rue. This helps Katniss realize the powerful effect of human interaction.

APPEARANCES VS REALITY
What we see on reality television is not reality
Throughout the novel, Katniss and her team use her external appearance,
including what she says and how she behaves, to control how other people
perceive her. At the reaping ceremony, for instance, she wont allow herself to
cry in front of the cameras because she doesnt want to give the impression of
being weak (and therefore an easy target). Moreover, at the opening ceremony
of the Games, the novel emphasizes how important appearances are by focusing
a great deal on Katnisss preparations. The main feature of this focus is the dress
Cinna creates for her. It is covered in synthetic flames, earning Katniss the
epithet the girl who was on fire, and it makes Katniss stand out among the
tributes. Drawing attention is more than just vanity in the Games. The tributes
that are most memorable tend to attract sponsors, who can provide gifts that
may prove critical during the Games. Katniss hides her tears during the Games
for a similar reason, as self-pitying tributes are unattractive to sponsors. A
tributes appearance and behaviour can therefore serve as a significant part of
their survival strategy.
Perhaps the most notable part of Katnisss strategy involves her romance with
Peeta. This romance is not entirely genuine on Katnisss end. She cares about
Peeta and develops a romantic interest him, but her feelings dont have nearly
the same intensity as his and she always remains ambivalent about him. For the
cameras, however, Katniss plays up her feelings for Peeta and works to convince
the viewers, and especially the Capitol, that shes deeply in love with him. The
act is one Haymitch devised for strategic reasons: Katnisss and Peetas love
story produces more gifts from sponsors than if theyre simply friends, and it
seems even to influence the Capitols decision to allow two tributes to be
declared winners rather than the customary one. Consequently, the act Katniss
puts on has a significant effect on both her and Peetas survival. Through these
events, the novel suggests that what cameras show, on reality television for
instance, is not necessarily reality, and that appearances are just as
consequential as the truth.

VIOLENCE
Year 10 Novel Study: The Hunger Games
Miss Cole

Compassion and morality should be celebrated, whilst violence

and brutality should be condemned
Throughout the novel, Katniss faces several situations in which she has to make
a choice to do something humane (compassionate) or inhumane to another
person. Quite often these decisions are based on a potential threat to herself,
either directly or indirectly caused by the Capitol's tyrannical (harsh) treatment
of the lesser districts. She feels extremely guilty when she meets the red-headed
Avox girl that she didnt save her, and chooses to risk her own life to give Rue a
funeral. Further, she refuses to kill Peeta in order to win the games, and instead
chooses to sacrifice her life to hold on to her compassion and morality. Katniss
refuses to become the killing machine that the Capitol audiences want to see.
Similarly, Peeta refuses to let the Games (and in turn, the Gamemakers) change
him. He is described as a kind and compassionate person early in the novel, with
Katniss recounting the story of how he saved her life when she and her family
were starving. He risks his life in the arena to protect Katniss.
In contrast, Collins paints the Capitol as grotesque. Through Katniss voice,
Collins emphasises their lack of compassion and their inhumanity. The audiences
from the Capitol, like Ancient Romans watching Gladiator bouts, are entertained
by extreme violence. Collins expresses criticism of this culture, once again
through the voices of her characters.
In the end, Peeta and Katniss, who have chosen to retain the compassion,
kindness and morality that defines their humanity are victorious over the cruelty
and violence of the Capitol.

DEFIANCE
Unity is key in combating oppression
Throughout the novel, it is made clear that the Capitol have intentionally created
fear and distrust for one another amongst the districts as a means of
suppressing rebellion (see notes above). Katniss alliance with and compassion
towards Rue begins the process of bringing the districts together, with District 13
sending Katniss a gift in recognition of her kindness.
When Katniss and Peeta choose to remain united as allies and die together,
rather than giving in to the Capitols desire to see them turn on each other, they
accidently expose the Capitols weakness. The Capitol cannot let them both die
and risk the dissatisfaction of the wealthy elite who are vital in upholding the
Capitols power, and so the gamemakers are forced to declare joint victors. In
this way, Katniss and Peeta prove that presenting a united front erodes the
Capitols power. Through its ending, the novel suggests that working together is
vital in overthrowing oppressive regimes.
SOURCES:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-games/themes.html
http://wikieducator.org/English/ASHS_Year_12_-_The_Hunger_Games/Themes
Year 10 Novel Study: The Hunger Games
Miss Cole

http://www.shmoop.com/hunger-games/themes.html