Quick Review: The Hunger Games
Note: I am making a serious attempt to keep this spoiler-free, so just about everything included here is limited to what is set out early in the book and my general reactions to the book. It's a fun and interesting read, so I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone!
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So, I finished the Hunger Games within a week, which is pretty quick for me. It's usually too hard to find really solid amounts of time at once to sit down and read for hours, as much as I'd like to. It's a quick read and it's a really gripping read. It's fun and fast-paced, and I found that it created a lot of anxiety for me as I read it.
I found the main character, Katniss, very easy to relate to, being a brunette from what is basically the East Coast in the Appalachians, she's tough, she's determined, and she's practical. She doesn't leave a lot of room for softer side of life because she doesn't see the value, unless it means she will be able to survive. The book is set in a dystopian future, presumably something like 500 years ahead of our current time, with a grotesquely wealthy Capitol set in the Rocky mountains, as they were able to escape the worst of some sort of environmental catastrophe in that elevated location. Earlier, districts in the rest of Panem (which my brain auto-corrects to Pan-Am...) rose in rebellion against the capitol, which was brutally quashed through superior technology and firepower. Now the districts vary in their levels of deprivation, but all are unfortunate backwaters compared to the opulence and excess of the Capitol. In order to keep the districts in line, the Capitol maintains strict control, and uses the Hunger Games as a means of reminding each district that the districts are all existing at the mercy of the powerful Capitol.
The book was published in 2008, so it's very interesting to consider the political intentions and ideology of Ms. Collins. Was she seeking to demonstrate the perils of extremely divided societies? It was published prior to the upsurge of the Occupy movement which sought to call attention to the extreme distance between the wealthiest few and the suffering masses, but it taps into the same fears, and then extends it to dystopian extremes.
The other real world connection I saw was the dehumanization of people hunting other people, and the desensitization to violence that allows a society to enjoy such closely-followed blood sports. Katniss narrates the book demonstrating that in District 12 (the coal-mining district, proving that not much ever seems to change in the Appalachians), watching the games and the associated "festivities" is mandatory, to remind the full population of their subservient position to the Capitol. By contrast, some of the better-off districts prepare children who demonstrate prowess into "Career Tributes" who train to kill and slaughter other children in the Hunger Games, who may often volunteer. The Capitol itself turns into a party for the preparations, and the population breathlessly watches, the way many Americans do certain popular reality shows or soap operas. This celebration of blood and murder turns my stomach and makes me wonder what has to happen within a society that it begins to enjoy such activities. Granted such events were common back in the Roman empire, pitting gladiators against each other for the enjoyment of the Colloseum or feeding troublesome religious minorities to lions, and the like. We weekly watch young men decked out in pads and helmets crashing into each other with forces similar to automotive accidents, or wearing padded gloves trying to knock the stuffing out of each other. But seeking to pit children against each other to murder other children is an extreme that we have yet to actually witness.
Without giving away the events, which are presented in a series of twists and turns that seem impossible to predict (a clear strength of the author), there is a string throughout the novel that pulls out the greatest in humanity between some of the characters. Despite the horrors that all ware witnessing and experiencing, there is true friendship, support, charity, and warmth that definitely got me choked up. Some of these seem to only underscore the contrast between the individuals and the horror of the context.
Now that I've finished, or rather devoured, this first book in the series, the ending came in a good place, but certainly leaves me craving more. The ending introduces a whole new chapter, so to speak, of the story. Danger never truly ceases, though it may let up temporarily or simply be hiding. For someone who identifies easily with characters, it was a difficult read, since there always seems to be something to fear, and now there's new fears looming and that will only be confronted once I start to tear through book 2.
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