The Hunger Games and 1984

While I am not usually a fan of this genre, I was surprised by how interested I became in The Hunger Games.  The idea for the Hunger Games horrified me, but I was completely invested in Katniss' successful completion of the Games.  Especially when it became evident that Katniss and Peeta would be among the few remaining survivors, I was intensely curious as to how the novel would end.  Now I feel as though I have to read the next book, in order to see what happens between Katniss and Peeta.  I think this is a great novel to use with students who may have the same feelings about this genre as I did prior to reading this book. 

It amazed me how much of The Hunger Games could be likened to today's society.  Katniss' prep team and those in the Capitol remind me of people in Hollywood and fashion designers.  The way that the Capitol was described as only wanting a good show and becoming "bored" if there were no killings made me think of today's society and our tendency to constantly want new television and movies in order to keep us entertained.  I feel as though The Hunger Games is an extreme version of our easily distracted and easily bored culture.  This aspect of the novel really frightened me, as I could see society escalating to something at least vaguely similar to that represented in The Hunger Games.  Also, with Facebook and other media, there are some that believe we are isolating ourselves and losing the ability to interact face-to-face.  This could easily lead to a lack of sympathy and empathy with others, which appears to be the principle reason that the Hunger Games are allowed to continue.  The gamemakers and the Capitol do not actually care about the lives of the tributes.  They have no conscience about the fact that they are orchestrating the deaths of innocent adolescents.  This kind of apathy and disconnect is dangerous to have, and I hope that our internet-loving society does not allow ourselves to completely disassociate from other human beings in this way. 


This was my second time reading 1984.  The first time I read this book, it was summer reading for my Humanities class in 12th grade.  Not only was I resentful I had to read such a challenging book over the summer, but I absolutely hated the novel itself.  While I appreciated Orwell's social commentary and understood the importance of the book, I found it difficult to read and highly disturbing.  Also, the subject-matter was such that I found myself thinking about how the book could relate to today's society and how it may have related to Orwell's intended society.  It was a bit overwhelming.

Now that I have read the book a second time, I can appreciate it more than I originally did.  It still highly depresses me, and I would rather read other books that contain the same message than this particular book.  However, I noticed that I understood the pivotal scenes better than I had when I first read the book.  The scene when Winston and Julia are caught at their hideout made much more sense to me, and I found I actually could pick out the foreshadowing this time. 

In a way, Winston's society seems much scarier with much less hope of any rebellion or change than Katniss' society.  While Winston was constantly under surveillance, later captured and made to endure torture in order to conform to the Party's ideas, Katniss' main period of surveillance came when she was a tribute.  It seems that there was less surveillance in each particular district (Katniss' district seemed particularly lenient).  In this way, there was the ability for politicians to "look the other way" and to avoid fully punishing members of their districts of certain crimes, especially if those members brought them strawberries or squirrels (as in Katniss' case).  The only 24 hour surveillance that seems to occur is during the Hunger Games themselves.  While this is still not an ideal situation, it does seem like less of an invasive government than Winston's. 

Overall, I think these two novels go well together, and that it was a great idea for Heather to pair these two for her presentation.  I am glad I had another opportunity to read 1984 and give it another chance.  I definitely have a better opinion of it after the second reading.