An Insight on the Deeper Meanings Intertwined into The Hunger Games Series

We haven’t posted anything in a LONG time! Life got busier and time was running on the low side, but I found this interesting link that opened up my eyes to many different, and well more mature, topics in The Hunger Games. The article really gave me a different viewpoint on the fundamentals that the book is based on.

With the recent release of Catching Fire (which was by the way AMAZING) I was running into a lot of thought-provoking articles. Here’s one of them! Hope you enjoy 🙂 And keep reading past the citations! There’s more stuff below 🙂

Politics, Entertainment and Deeper Meanings of the Hunger Games

kcarlson91 — Tue, 04/10/2012 – 10:59

The Hunger Games, at first sight, appears to be your average teen romance trilogy, but upon second glance, you realize that this is not the case. Suzanne Collins writes about a future nation that requires its children to kill each other as a form of entertainment for the people of the Capitol. The plot makes for a very exciting story line, but as the reader you cannot help but wonder what message Collins is trying to get across. Does she believe that if we continue down the path that society is currently taking we will someday face a world similar to Panem, and that this fiction could someday become a reality on certain levels? Within these novels, Collins includes several important themes, including: corrupt politics, starvation vs. greed, the obsession with entertainment, and the symbolism behind the character’s names. Almost every aspect of her trilogies explores a deeper meaning, and it is up to the reader to decipher it.

One of the overarching themes in the trilogy is politics and the overbearing dictatorship form of government that exists in Panem. This can be seen through the social hierarchy that the Capitol has established throughout each district. The districts are ranked in numerical order with the Capitol as the leader, and districts 1 through 12 decreasing in worth. “Compared to the harsh conditions of…District 12, the luxuries of the Capitol and the party-style excitement of the population at the prospect of the Hunger Games seems unforgiveable” (Van Dyke 165). Whenever there are harsh conditions and poverty at one end of the country and at the other end there are people who live a life of luxury and overindulge in gluttony, you know that the system is corrupt and the politics are unjust. It is ironic that Panem stands for bread in Latin; because of its connection with food, you would think that there was an abundant source of food, when in fact there are more people who are starving for bread to eat (O’Niell). Bread also plays an important role in the Hunger Games because poverty and starvation are obstacles that Katniss faces throughout her life, and her starvation is what allows Peeta to be her savior when he gives her the burnt loaves of bread. The fact that poverty is a significant problem for the country supports how corrupt and negligent the political system is in Panem.

The theme of politics increases in importance throughout the novels, because it is the government’s mistreatment that sparks the uprisings and forces the citizens into rebellion. According to Travis Prinzi, Panem is a post-rebellion country.  The Hunger Games were a response to the rebels, reminding them that the Capitol has the ultimate power and cannot be taken down. To remind the districts of the Capitol’s power, twenty-four children (a male and female from each district) are picked annually to fight to the death leaving one victor. “Oppressive governments often use overt forms of violence and brutality, and the Capitol is no exception” (Timm 182). President Snow is a tyrant that shows no remorse in killing his nation’s youth. He only worries about enciting fear into Panem’s citizens to void any thoughts of another rebellion.  The idea of the Hunger Games can be likened with that of the Roman gladiator games in which men were thrown into an arena expecting to kill each other (Prinzi). Prinzi and Adam Barkman both agree that “despite the power and glory of Rome, the trilogy makes one thing abundantly clear: ‘All of this’—the Rome-like Capitol and its gladiatorlike Games—‘is wrong’ (Barkman 174).

At first, the idea of the Hunger Games is strikingly gruesome, but when compared to historical events that have taken place, it becomes clear that evil and unjust things have happened in our history many times. As O’Neill states:

“While Americans may not enjoy actual murder as entertainment; one must think of the violence in television, video games, and movies. We may not kill 23 children annually for a thrilling show, but we’ve murdered millions through abortion.”

The Holocaust was a historical event that sought the extermination of the Jews and “Hitler’s death camps were part of a Nazi aesthetic of power whose intent was not just to destroy the Jews but to defile and humiliate them” (McDonald 22). Germany can be seen as a Capitol figure that killed Jews for pleasure, just to show their political dominance.

The idea of the Hunger Games as a form of entertainment is a ludicrous idea in itself. Just like the Nazis found pleasure in their slayings, the Capitol finds it in the Games. This leads into another important theme of the Hunger Games, which is the idea of entertainment in the eyes of the Capitol versus the rest of the nation. “The trilogy is, among other things, a cautionary tale about the dark side of entertainment” (McDonald 18). The people of the Capitol find gratification in watching the nation’s youth fight to the death and then parade the winner around as a celebrity. In a society that depends on media and entertainment like Facebook, Twitter, reality TV, etc., we are forced to think of a world where the need for entertainment exceeds our morals. Suzanne Collins “[engages] in the kind of exaggeration typical of dystopias: fictional works that take a negative cultural trend and imagine a future or an alternative world in which that trend dominates every aspect of life” (McDonald 18). In the Hunger Games, entertainment dominates the lives of the Capitol citizens and blurs the edge of what is actually entertaining versus morally wrong.

Entertainment can be divided into two categories: natural art and the Capitol’s art. Brian McDonald refers to Aristotle’s book on drama,Poetics, and states that “[Aristotle’s] view of art as imitation, or mimesis, holds the key to understanding the difference between two uses of art in Panem: the horrific, though beautifully designed, spectacle of the Capitol and the ‘natural’ art created by Peeta” (19). In addition to Peeta’s art is the element of music that plays an important role throughout the trilogy. The Capitol citizens view their drastic body modifications as artistic, but when contrasted against the beautiful paintings that Peeta creates or Rue’s harmonic melody — skin dying, tattoos, implants, and other bizarre alterations do not compare. What is even more grotesque than the Capitol citizen’s personal body modifications is the eagerness to “remake” other people or forms of nature into products of the Capitol. For example, the muttations that are commonly engineered to kill or torture “are almost as sinister [as] the decorative preparation of the tributes’ bodies for theirAmerican Idol-like interviews prior to their dismemberment and destruction in the arena” (McDonald 21). The entirety of the Hunger Games including the Reaping, the opening ceremony, training scores, interviews, the actual games, and the parading of the victorious tribute from district to district, heighten the entertainment value for the citizens, while they only cause fear for the other districts.

Opposing the Capitol’s idea of amusement is the very real artistic abilities of Peeta and the theme of music. All tributes are required to take up a “talent” after winning the games, and it is no mistake that Peeta’s is art. “The elevating and procreative aspect of artistic mimesis, embodied in Peeta, provides the major redemptive note of the trilogy. While Katniss is the hero, Peeta’s capacity for art makes him the redeemer” (McDonald 26). Therefore, McDonald suggests that Peeta holds the capacity to recreate life after the war and bring back nature’s true beauty. Peeta’s art is a completely different type of entertainment than that of the Capitol. Art is a way for Peeta to recreate the nightmares that he has encountered and show the world through his eyes, while those nightmares are seen as fun and games to the Capitol. Music is also a natural art that plays a major role throughout the trilogy. To Rue, music is her favorite thing in the world, and Katniss “learns that it’s more than mere entertainment; it has the power to shape her character and inspire the revolution that overthrows the Capitol” (Torkelson 29). Anne Torkelson points out the importance of the different songs: “The Meadow Song” is a song for hope in the future, while “The Hanging Tree” depicts the total opposite and calls into question if living can be worse than death. Although these songs would typically offer entertainment, and maybe once had, they have now taken on a new role and put a new “fire” in the revolution. But, what exactly is this fire? The readers can develop a new sense of what it means for Katniss to be “the girl on fire” by analyzing the characters and their names.

The character names chosen by Collins are rather atypical, thus sparking the curiosity of their meanings and why they were chosen. The leading characters’ names, Katniss and Peeta, carry historical symbolism in both biblical and mythological contexts. Past the book’s given explanation of Katniss’s plant namesake and the play on food names with Peeta, Collins based her characters’ intentions and characteristics on their respective historical personalities.

“The Boy With the Bread” is described by John Granger as the sacrificial character, which is determined by the complex symbolisms of his name. Peeta, of course, is a play on spelling of “pita bread,” which coincides with his family’s occupation as the town bakers as well as the Latin translation of ‘Panem’ meaning bread. Granger also connects Peeta with the name of Jesus Christ’s disciple, Peter, who “is received as Bread, and who loves the world and every soul in it sacrificially” (Hogwarts Professor). Peeta is therefore a biblical symbol in the book that lives to serve, protect, and foster humanity. Examples of his sacrifice reside in the burning of the bakery’s bread in order to feed Katniss’s starving family in exchange for a physical and mental beating from his mother, as well as bonding with a group of murderous Tributes, who seek to kill Katniss, in order to protect her in exchange for a gaping sword wound. Granger describes his character as a “selfless lover,” which is found also in Peter the Disciple’s love and willingness for Christ.

Katniss was named for a plant that is deeply rooted into the ground and has leaves shaped like arrowheads (OED), which is no coincidence to her mastery of the bow and arrow, an ancient weapon used by male mythical characters. This ancient connection ties Katniss’s name to such mythologies as the tales of Spartacus and Theseus. In McDonald’s article, the actual Hunger Games are inspired by the Greek mythological tale of King Minos of Crete sending out a specified number of children to battle the Minotaur. Katniss channels the child warrior Theseus, who volunteered in place of a fellow citizen and rescued the other youth after slaying the beast, when she volunteers for her sister, rescues Peeta from death’s grip, and shows compassion for the fallen. Later in the trilogy, Katniss serves as a leader for the districts’ rebellion, much like Spartacus who “…led slaves against the Roman Empire” (Miller 103). Collins creates Katniss’s character through “rebelliousness and defiance…[which are] closely associated in our culture with masculinity and tend to be discouraged for women” (Miller 103). She often defies the counsel of authority in order to follow her instincts and ultimately succeeds in her goal to create peace and safety in Panem. She is the hero of the story, and by taking over the responsibilities granted to male figures in past stories of heroism, Collins has defied the typical role of the helpless teenage girl and designed the ultimate woman warrior.

Although the Hunger Games is a “just-can’t-put-it-down” type of book, readers are also forced to think of a world where the government would force their citizens to partake in such Games. The readers must dig deeper into the literature and pull out the messages that Collins embedded into pages. Collins argues that corrupt governments hold the power to take away life’s everyday joys, like the Nazis did to the Jews. She depicts a world where entertainment means more to people than the lives of their children, and where art is no longer a beautiful creation, but odd and grotesque modifications to the world around them. Through the use of Katniss and Peeta, Collins defies gender norms by making a female the heroin and also creates hope by making Peeta a biblical figure. By digging deeper into the trilogies, the readers are able to interpret these themes that Collins finds crucial.

Works Cited

Barkman, Adam. “Why One of Rome’s Greatest Thinkers Would Despise the Capitol.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 174-182. EBook.

Granger, John. “Unlocking The Hunger Games.” Hogwarts Professor. 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/unlocking-the-hunger-games-four-layers-of-meaning/&gt;.

McDonald, Brian. “Mimetic and Monstrous Art in the Hunger Games.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 18-28. EBook.

Miller, Jessica. “Katniss and the Politics of Gender.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 101-110. EBook.

The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <www.oed.com>.

O’Niell, Rachel. “A Literary Analysis: The Hunger Games.” Web blog post. The Purposeful Wife. Blogger.com, 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. <http://purposefulwife.blogspot.com/2012/03/literary-analysis-hunger-games.html&gt;.

Prinzi, Travis. “The Hunger Games: Panem’s Politics.” The Hog’s Head. 16 Feb. 2010. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. .

Timm, Chad W. “Power and Privilege in Panem.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 182-189. EBook.

Torkelson, Anne. “How Even the Shortest Song Can Change the World.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 29-37. EBook.

Van Dyke, Christina. “Regulating Hungers in the Capitol.” The Hunger Games and Philosophy. Ed. George A. Dunn, Nicolas Michaud. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 165-173. EBook.

Webster, Noah. “Panem Et Circenses.” Def. 1. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. New York: Pocket, 1977. Print

Thought provoking isn’t it? Well if you haven’t seen Catching Fire yet it is a MUST. I assure you it is worth that movie ticket if you read the books and know more background than someone who has no clue what’s going on.  Maybe a book-worm like me is a bit too biased when I saw the movie, but it was amazing for sure.

–Bubbles 🙂

P.S. I thought this part in the movie was hilarious.