One of the great reads for young and old is a trilogy of novels known as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The series of stories deals with oppression, conquest, the struggle for survival, hunters and their prey, deprivation, courage, and a strong love triangle. There are many exciting twists and turns in the series, particularly as to who Katniss will choose as her latest love interest: Peetah or Gale, both “citizens” of her district; and rumors of a mysterious D13 and his eventual role in resolving the story. All three books are narrated by Katniss, giving the saga a deeply personal and exciting tone. In the first book, after the contest in the arena, Katniss waits in a base room for his televised appearance. By his actions in the arena at the end, he has aroused President Snow’s hatred, which explains his fears in the following excerpt from the first novel:
The damp, musty smell under the stage threatens to suffocate me. A cold, clammy sweat breaks out on my skin and I can’t shake the feeling that the boards above my head are about to collapse to bury me alive under the rubble. When I got out of the arena, when the trumpet sounded, I was supposed to be safe. Since then. For the rest of my life. But if what Haymitch (his drunken mentor and former arena winner) says is true, and he has no reason to lie, I’ve never been in such a dangerous place in my life.
The first book in the saga, titled The Hunger Games, introduces a graphic background on a war that has left the United States divided into 12 districts, each governed by the victors of a city called The Capitol. Each district provides a different need for the rulers: for example, D12 supplies coal; another district provides training for peacekeeping troops.
For the past 75 years, the Capitol has held events in arenas. Each year two youths, one female and one male, are selected from each district to participate in a fight to the death contest. There are 24 in all. The survivor’s district gets extra benefits and the survivor wins numerous accolades. After the event, all surviving youth are sent on a victor’s tour of each district.
In the second book, Catching Fire, the drama continues with another Arena Event, in which the vengeful Capitol President Snow rigs the selection so that the former winners have to compete again. Snow’s real strategy is to take the female victor from Dl2 into another fight in hopes of getting her killed. The teenager, Katniss Aberdeen, is gradually becoming the “Mockingjay”, a symbol of a growing rebellion against the cruel oppression of the Capitol.
Mockingjay is the title of the final book in this engrossing saga, in which Katniss becomes Mockingjay, the main leading figure of all the districts, including District 13, which in the last novel of the trilogy has become the ultimate stronghold. for the masses against the might and might of the Capitol. D13 has been able to develop a confrontation with President Snow and his supporters because D13 commands a sizeable nuclear force. In this third dramatic saga, Katniss undergoes arduous training as his relationship with the president of D13 becomes increasingly strained. His close friend Peetah is in the hands of President Snow and has become mentally unstable. Katniss isn’t sure how to rekindle her relationship when she finally joins them.
With time running out, D13 orders an offensive in one of the other districts to begin their campaign to topple Snow’s regime. Katniss and some of his followers make their way underground to the Capitol, where they are eventually followed by a massive force of D13 which Katniss thinks is a bad idea at the time. A tragic incident results in a shocking and surprising twist at the end, in which the heroine Mockingjay makes a spontaneous decision that will have far-reaching implications. As a reader, I felt that the narrative of the final book pales in the sense that the author should have had Katniss lead the anti-Capitol forces in the city instead of the overly ambitious president of D13.
The Hunger Games books became so popular that four films were licensed, with the first released in March 2012. Jennifer Lawrence, Academy Award nominee for Best Actress for Winter’s Bone and Best Actress winner for Silver Linings Playbook, won the lead role of Katniss. She won over such well-known actresses as Abigail Breslin (Zombieland, Little Miss Sunshine), Academy Award nominee Hailey Seinfeld (True Grit) and Shailene Woodley (Tris in Divergent and Hazel Grace in The Fault in Our Stars).
Other actors named for coveted roles include Donald Sutherland, as the sinister President Snow; Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Katniss’s brilliant and caring stylist (who died in the second Catching Fire film); Woody Harrelson as her overbearing and unpredictable mentor Haymitch; and Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth as her two would-be lovers, Peetah and Gale. Willow Shields was cast to play Katniss’s younger sister, Prim, whose place Katniss took in the first arena event.Another character Katniss allies with in the first arena contest is the diminutive and tragic Rue, a tribute from another district, whose only surviving talent seemed to be her speed, the cast was Amandla Stenberg.
