The Hunger Games: A Guide for Discussion

Posted by DJL on Mar 7, 2012 in Books | 9 comments

I count myself among the lucky in that I stumbled upon Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games shortly after it was published and so had a chance to read it, love it, and recommend it to others way before the film buzz. (Of course, that also meant that I had to wait a full year in between each of the successive two volumes!)

Since then, I’ve been wondering about the phenomenal appeal of this book. Not only is it tremendously popular but it’s been one of the stories that has most stayed with me in recent years (indeed, I’ve read it a couple of times now). I’ve also been wondering about how we might read it with our kids (both in our families and in our congregations) and have some conversation with them about some of the powerful themes. So what follows is a brief exploration of The Hunger Games and a few suggestions for discussing it in your home or with your youth group.

First, a quick overview: The Hunger Games is set a century or so in the future in a totalitarian state called Panem which was once the United States. A repressive government is located in The Capitol, a city of extravagant wealth and excess, while the rest of the population resides in twelve Districts spread across the country, each of which has a particular commodity for which it is responsible (wheat, iron ore, gems, technology, etc.).

In response to an unsuccessful rebellion nearly seventy-five years earlier, each of the districts is required to send a boy and girl “tribute” between the ages of twelve and eighteen to the Capitol each year to compete in a contest that falls somewhere between the Roman gladiatorial games and Survivor. These are the “Hunger Games,” a deadly reality-show spectacle that is telecast live throughout the country of Panem so that residents in the Capitol can be entertained while those in the Districts are reminded of their weakness.

The story revolves around Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year-old who volunteers as tribute when her beloved younger sister, Prim, is chosen. She, along with Peeta Mellark, the boy tribute from her district, travel to the Capitol where they are transformed into performers for the delight of the wealthy residents and trained for their odyssey in the Games. Katniss’ ordeal, her unlikely relationships with Peeta and Rue, a young girl from another poor District, and their quest for not just survival but also dignity move the book forward to a dramatic conclusion.

So why did I like this so much. On one level, that’s pretty simple: it’s a well-written story with characters that you care about who are placed in outrageous and difficult circumstances. At another level, though, it’s more. Four elements of the story stand out.

1) The overwhelming sense of oppression and injustice of a system that sends children to battle each other to the death to provide a spectacle for the wealthy and threat to the poor permeates the book. Reading The Hunger Games heightens our desire to stand against injustice wherever we might find it. Because whether it’s government abuses or playground bullying, you just know that power is meant to be used to help others and create equality, not to privilege some people over others. Adolescence is a time when our children’s moral identity and compass is being formed, and I think they identify with the quest for justice that pervades the series.

2) The human relationships in The Hunger Games (and its sequels) are complex. Just like life. Katniss’ feelings for and relationships with Gale, a friend from her District, and for Peeta are complicated, change, and develop, and I suspect that younger and older readers recognize something in this that rings true. How do you know what you feel? Who can you trust? What makes one worthy of love? These are important questions.

3) Like many “Young Adult” novels, the theme of searching for independence and identity are strong in this book. But Suzanne Collins explores the relationship between mutual need and independence with some care. For much of her life, Katniss has had to be independent to survive; at the same time, she is repeatedly put in situations where she must depend on others for her survival. How do we balance mutual dependence and independence, and what do words like “giving,” “receiving,” and “owing” mean in terms of human relationships and the quest for independence? Why is Katniss so much more comfortable taking care of others (Prim, her mother) than receiving from (and “owing”) someone like Peeta?

4) Finally, there is a strong element of social commentary to the book. Like all dystopias, the bleak future portrayed is only an exaggeration of some of the elements of our own. The Reality TV craze of recent years is distorted to serve the plotline of the story. But by how much? The name “Panem” comes from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, which means “bread and circuses” and refers to the means by which the Roman government distracted the populace from paying attention to is abuses. Are we similarly “entertaining ourselves to death”? As much as we identify with Katniss, it’s hard not to identify at least a little bit with some of the outrageously superficial characters who populate the Capitol, characters who aren’t bad but have been led to believe that their self-worth derives from their celebrity, clothing, gossip, and more.

Three general questions for discussing The Hunger Games in reading groups and/or Youth Groups.

1) How do the stances that Katniss and Peeta take toward the Capitol compare? Katniss regularly wants to make her face “an indifferent mask” whenever she’s in public or when the cameras of the Games Makers are trained on her. Peeta at one point says, “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 is each after? What is their chief fear? And their chief hope? With which do you identify.

2) How would you compare the class oppression and tension that colors Panem with recent current events like the “Arab Spring” that continues a year after it started and the Occupy Wall Street movement? When is inequality too great to suffer anymore? What can ordinary citizens do in response?

3) What is the appeal of spectacle, in Panem and in our own world? What social purpose does it serve? How does our appetite for the outrageous cloud or distract us from what’s real? Given the growing popularity of “Reality” TV, do you think we can still tell what’s real and what’s been staged? What effect does this preference for spectacle have on our culture, communities, and homes?

Three biblical stories to set beside The Hunger Games:

1) Exodus 1: The story of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

Questions: How is the oppression described in the Exodus story similar or different from that portrayed in The Hunger Games? What do you think all forms of oppression have in common? Why are tyrants so fearful (a theme explore in Harry Potter as well)? How does God respond to oppression and the violence it nurtures?

2) Matthew 5:1-12: The Beatitudes

Questions: What kind of “kingdom” or “community” is Jesus describing in this part of his Sermon on the Mount? How does it compare with the culture and community we live in now? In what ways are the themes of meekness, peacemakers, and justice explore in The Hunger Games? How might Katniss, Gale, Haymitch, Rue, Prim, and Peeta respond to these verses? And what about you?

3) John 13: The Last Supper

Questions: John’s story of the Last Supper begins with these words: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” How is Jesus’ self-sacrifice, even for those who would desert him, similar to Katniss’ sacrifice for her sister Prim or Peeta’s love and sacrifice for Katniss? In what way is “sacrificial love” a helpful theme with which to read The Hunger Games? What happens when relationships are governed by this kind of love, counter to the culture’s (Panem’s and our own) to put yourself first? And how does the conclusion demonstrate the power of vulnerability and love over and against brute force?