s.penkevich's Reviews > The Hunger Games

In around 100 A.D., Roman poet Juvenal wrote that ‘everything now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.’ How true and terrifying these words are to remain relevant through the ages and how succinctly they get to the heart of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Published in 2008, this novel introduced the world to its harrowing heroine, Katniss Everdeen, whom Collin’s has describes as ‘a futuristic Theseus’ volunteering herself to be sent in sacrifice for the entertainment of others in order to protect her sister and taking not only it’s fiction world of Panem by storm but the real world as well. The novel launched into a trilogy and subsequent prequels with the newest slated to arrive next year, has been translated into 56 languages and by the time the first film adaptation arrived in 2012 it had already sold nearly 18 million copies. Yet somehow I have never managed to read the books until now despite rather enjoying the films though after some prodding by my daughter I have finally entered Collins arena and I have to admit…this was incredible. This book practically launched a decade of dystopian novels as popular fiction and helped bring the YA genre to prominence, though I wouldn’t even say this is a teen novel but a novel simply anyone could enjoy across the spectrum of ages. Perfectly plotted for maximum tension and intrigue and quite brilliantly written, this is practically impossible to put down as it brings hit after hit of action, terror and sharp social criticism. A novel of an obdurate authoritarian government and wealthy class upholding power through propaganda, division, lack of resources and public displays of violence, The Hunger Games shows the ripples of unrest begun through the actions of a bold heroine with ‘just the perfect touch of rebellion,’ to break through the public control of Juvenal’s ‘bread and circuses.’ May the odds be ever in her favor.

‘Here's some advice. Stay alive.’

At this point the story to The Hunger Games is practically common knowledge and culturally embedded the way one need not give a description of what, say, Star Wars or Harry Potter is about. Collins perfectly amalgamates narratives explored in stories such as Theseus and the Minotaur or The Most Dangerous Game with early 2000s channel surfing and rise of reality television into a violent, dystopian world. I’ve always said marketing is simply the marketable term for propaganda and The Hunger Games takes this to an extreme level. Their futuristic gladiator-esque battles pitting children from each District of Panem in a brutal contest of survival becomes a sort of reality-television yearly event that keeps the districts in line reminding them of the cost of rebellion while also keeping them at odds with one another, broadcasted as entertainment in such a way as to make one think of Noam Chomsky’s warning that ‘he who controls the media controls the minds of the public.’ The Game’s have a sinister marketing mechanism to them, the ‘circus’ half of Juvenal’s prophetic words.

‘Why am I hopping around like some trained dog trying to please people I hate?’

Plucked from their impoverished conditions and brought to the Capitol and put on display for people to pick favorites and become sponsors for (not unlike politicians begging for donations and trying to get corporations to fund them since in the US a person is capped at around $3k in donations but corporations can give endless money), not for the sake of humanizing them but, more insidiously, to give the impression of humanizing them while actually making them into a character. The sort of character you can become attached to without having to feel any authentic sadness over their death, the type of character you can enjoy from afar without having to confront the reality of their mortality and personhood. ‘It’s all a big show,’ Katniss has to grapple with, ‘its all about how you’re perceived.’ Which hits hard in the age of algorithms and brands pretending to be people on social media, but in the Games it means if the children aren’t murdering each other sensationally enough they’ll send a fireball at Katniss so the slogan “the girl who was on fire” gets a little more traction to sell sponsorships. Little did they realize that very slogan could take on a double meaning of resistance…

‘Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.’

Perhaps this is from having seen the whole arc before reading the book but this read was a fascinating exercise in well-plotted foreshadowing with Katniss as a fairly unreliable narrator that has yet to become aware that her character building has been subverted as one of rebellion. Madge, the mayor’s daughter, giving her the Mockingjay pin is just the start of her transformation into a symbol and the slow-burn of scripted romance and showmanship is all aimed at showing ‘I'm more than just a piece in their Games.’ As my daughter pointed out, Panem is a total surveillance State and the randomness of the Games lottery—something that feels vaguely akin to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery (read in link)—is likely more marketing than actuality the way reality TV vet’s their contestants and the Capitol is far too horny for control to not hand-pick contestants for maximum profitablility under the fake guise of chance. The District 12 handlers have also had time to devise a quiet plan and use the flow of entertainment as a way to enact it as long as it is keeping ratings high and the public glued to there television. This, like all marketing (I have a degree in this almost entirely for the purpose of shit talking it), is best done by appealing to emotions (fear and religion, the latter of which is absent in Panem, being the two with strongest resonance) and employing psychological manipulation to make viewers/customers/etc feel they are making their own choices instead of being corralled, and by creating the character of Katniss they are playing into the marketing needs of the Capitol and the entertainment factors of The Games while also planting their own seeds of subversion in the highly fertile soils of public option. Here is where Juvenal’s ‘bread’ comes in.

‘District 12. Where you can starve to death in safety.’

Collins pays special attention to food throughout the novel with bread having a very symbolic purpose. [Big Dad Joke Voice] more like the HANGRY Games, am I right!? **elbows you in the ribs until you are assured therapy is in your future** Katniss’ own name and her father’s quip that ‘As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve,’ is key here too, as she becomes the symbol that gives hope in districts that are quite literally being starved while we see the juxtaposition of the Capitol’s wealth mainly portrayed through their absurd and frivolous fashion and lavish meals. Compared to the Districts, ‘they have no cause to rebel,’ when being fed and entertained is part and parcel of their access to wealth while being constantly reminded that those outside the Capitol are famished and those who betray them become an Avox with their tongues cut out serving out in the public eye so all can see and internalize the punishment. The public shows of violence are part of the way the Capitol keeps the masses down, coupled with their refusal to let the Districts communicate, dividing them and only allowing them to interact as rivals during The Games. As Juvenal said, control oomes from the circus—not unlike the way Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was a world that, under the systematic drugging and entertaining by the State, controlled itself in order to avoid pain—but also bread and keeping a population starving in order to feed them as a reward is a fast way to ensure they line up and keep their heads down in order to receive the “good graces” of the State and look out for themselves to avoid punishment only further dividing them. Make life a “every person for themselves” situation and punish anyone in proximity to any crime and people will not unite. It is a union busting tactic and a reminder that family is on the line if you step out of line. When Katniss shoots an arrow at the onlookers out of frustration she is less scared for herself than what they might do to her family as punishment.

‘Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you.’

This isn’t just in dystopia either and there are a lot of real world examples in the US of this sort of thing. Look at the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster in Michigan’s Upper Penninsula, my own state, where management shouted “fire” in a hall being used for an employee christmas party to trigger a panicked stampede to punish workers for collective action—59 of the 73 people killed were children, the youngest being 2 years old—to send a message that uniting against the powers that be meant death of your family. Or, even more insidious, simple glossing over violence by distracting with gestures that seem positive but cede no power. Llook at how the creation of Labor Day was a way to put a good government marketing spin on lip service to the working class without any actual action in response to police opening fire and murdering strikers during the Pullman railroad strike in 1894. Such tactics is exactly what the Capitol does, commit violence and then spin it to hold power.

This becomes rather pertinent during the Games when we see how the strong form collective action in order to mop up the weak. It’s like corporations, rallying together and funding politicians to ensure tax reform and policy that benefits them and only betraying each other “in the spirit of competition” once they are the last ones standing. Yet here we see a subversion. Peeta joins with The Careers in order to protect Katniss (trust issues are on high throughout this book) and there are some amazing moments when District 11 realizes they are far more aligned with 12 than the Careers. Its like the sayings on class solidarity people like to posture but rarely enact about how the middle class is far more aligned with the homeless and poor than billionaires but, as the Capitol propagates, all attention is turned towards serving the rich in hopes of being able to survive. I need to give a quick shoutout to District 11 though because they are wholly underrated in the series. Thresh is a real one and my favorite character and Rue is such a little sweetheart who deserved better and Katniss’ realization of this is quite a spark on the fires of rebellion. And how does District 11 thank her? Bread.

‘What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by?’

Let’s talk about bread. Bread comes bearing a long history of symbolism. Breaking bread has a connotation of togetherness and unity. We have Jesus in the Bible making five loaves feed the masses, or breaking bread with his apostles as a symbol of unity. And this unity is present here too. Peeta, the sweet little Peeta who is FAR more interesting than the meek version of him in the films, brings Katniss bread when she, like Theseus, volunteers ‘as tribute’ to fight in the Games. It is an early symbol of unity replicated by the gift from District 11 after she places flowers on the body of Rue to humanize her death and show that even the deaths of the poor carry emotional weight. It is also a direct fuck you to the showy fashions of the Capitol to adorn the body of the poor with bright colors–bright flowers that will wither and die like the Districts are under their control.

Unity becomes key here, and Katniss and Peeta’s collective action to eat the berries becomes the action that allows them to live. It will also become the action that President Snow fears is a spark of rebellion in Catching Fire but I’ve not finished it yet so more on that later. They lived by giving a marketable narrative the Capitol couldn’t spin fast enough. It is interesting to note, however, that the act of rebellion once again involves food and eating. Katniss earlier shoots an arrow through an apple, the apple in the mouth of a pig that fairly represents the way the children being sacrificed for the entertainment of the State, to ensure the Capitol pays attention to her. Even Haymitch’s alcoholism (beer being a product of yeast that nudges the symbol of bread yet again) is a show of indulgence in a world where indulgence is denied to the Districts, can be viewed as a small private rebellion. It also keeps the horrors of his past quieted, not that this condones alcoholism as a coping mechanism but you can see where Collins is going with that. Especially with lines like ‘They're already taking my future! They can't have the things that mattered to me in the past!’ and how we can hold on to our own small personal resistance.

‘I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can't own.’

The Hunger Games was an utterly fantastic book and engaging read far beyond what I had imagined it would be. It is fiery, it is relevant, it is smart, it is a whole lot of fun without sacrificing depth and insight. I liked it a lot better than the movies too, which tend to focus more of the action whereas the book kind of reminded me of the Gary Paulsen books I read as a kid where it focuses more on the survival aspects. It is a smart little book on the perils and powers of propaganda, the bread and circuses that keep people in line, but also a story about pushing back using their own tactics against them. A fascinating and fantastic book that lives up to the hype.

5/5

'And may the odds be ever in your favor.'