The Hunger Games

So the book I’m going to write about today is one you may have heard of. It was big a couple years back. And actually, I’m going to talk about all three books, so if you don’t want SPOILERS you should stop reading now.

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay

SPOILER ALERT

Okay, if you like them, fine. If you don’t like them, fine. If you haven’t read them, fine. If you haven’t read them but just seen the movie, you have no room to comment on this…But this is just my feelings and opinions so don’t get angry.

For Halloween this year, I dressed up as Katniss, my handy sister-in-law braided my hair for every Halloween party I went to and my bow and quiver of arrows were pretty much a must everywhere I went. (Although, I couldn’t believe how many people asked me where I’d got my Mockingjay pin. Has no one ever heard of Amazon. They have everything.)

But my costume sparked some conversations with people, as I’m sure any costume is apt to do. People asked what I thought. People asked how many times I’ve seen the movie (three, I believe). And people asked how many times I’d read the books (actually just once until the last couple weeks).

My sister, who’s three kids (of various ages) loved the books and movie, was horrified when she found out what they were all about after she’d dropped her youngest off to see the movie with a friend. This weekend though, she watched the movie, and were talking about it on Halloween. She said, “It’s horrible!”

I didn’t disagree with her, because it is horrible. But I did tell her, as I tell most people who only see the movie, “Obviously the book is about the same thing, but there is a lot more inner turmoil and frustration, guilt, love, and hope wrapped up in the books.” (At least in my opinion) My sister surprised me though, when she confessed to crying when Katniss volunteers to save Prim, and when Rue dies, and I think my sister actually admired Katniss for a bit.

And then she asked, “Why do kids like it so much? Is it because they don’t have kids? They can’t imagine how horrible it would be?”

And because I don’t have kids, I can’t answer the question. I’m a psychology major, and I was completely engulfed in the psychology of the series of books. Sure, I love a good story and I think the writing in these books is spectacular, but it’s what’s behind it that always catches me and makes me think. That is why I liked the books so much.

Since I was going to be Katniss for Halloween, I decided I had better refresh myself on the books so I listened to them on my iPod. I couldn’t believe I had only read them once though, but once I got into listening to them again, I realized why. The books are good, the take hold of you and drag you into the Hunger Games with Katniss. I wanted to protect the people she loves as much as she did, I wanted  to find a way to stop the games as much as she did. I wanted to see her succeed. I wanted to know what I would do if I were in the same situation. And honestly, the experience left me drained. Perhaps this is only my experience and you are all thinking I’m crazy right now, but isn’t that what makes you love the books you love?

A quote in the second book, Catching Fire, caught my attention: “The berries. I realize the answer to who I am lies in that handful of poisonous fruit. If I held them out to save Peeta because I knew I would be shunned if I came back without him, then I am despicable. If I held them out because I loved him, I am still self-centered, although forgivable. But if I held them out to defy the Capitol, I am someone of worth.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I see a lot of myself in that statement. I see doubt and reluctance, I see the desire to know what motivates me in the things I do. I see a hope that I am a better person that I often think I am.

Katniss didn’t volunteer for the Hunger Games to bring glory on herself. She volunteered to save her sisters life. She didn’t volunteer to be the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion that kills thousands in Panam. She is a reluctant hero who is trying to figure out how to do the very best thing she can for the people she loves.

In the third book, which it seems like to me was much less accepted than the first two, Suzanne Collins does not create the hero we expect, much less the happy ending we expect. Instead, I thought she created a crushingly realistic ending for Katniss, Peeta and Gale. Both Katniss and Peeta a broken by their experiences in the arena, the mind games played on them by the people in power, and a war raging across their country.

As much as the ending was not what I would hope for after years of fairy tale endings, I realized that it is a more realistic one. It is an ending that is also true to form for Katniss. It is very even, and very controlled....In my opinion anyway.