The Hunger Games

Suzanne CollinsBorn 1963

Career began in 1991 as a writer for children’s t.v. shows

Books:

The Underland Chronicle

The Hunger Games Trilogy

1. The Hunger Games (2008)2. Catching Fire (2009)3. Mockingjay (August 24, 2010)

Protagonist

• Katniss Everdeen Brunette, thin, medium height, athletic Brave Motivated By Love Intelligent

Antagonist

Peeta Mellark-Medium Height-Stocky Build-Easy going-In Love with Katniss

Peeta Mellark • Smart• Loving• Cunning• Patient• Easy Going

Peeta Mellark holds the spot as my favorite character because of of his numerous characteristics. He shows his ability for survival throughout the story, as well as his ability to show his love for Katniss. His patience and easy going character also make him a likeable character, because he cares more about others than he does about himself.

Favorite Character

Least Favorite CharacterEffie Trinket • Snobby• Easily annoyed • Lacks emotional

connection with her tributes

• Believes that she is mistreated because of the District She Represents

Throughout the book, even when first introduced, Effie comes off as a high maintenance, irritable person. Because of this, she is seen as someone who would not be missed. I believe that her lack of interest in her tributes creates a selfish characteristic that leads her to be my least favorite character.

Exposition

• Katniss is introduced from District 12, as a resourceful girl, who is self empowered.

• The characters are set in a futuristic world, where war has split the country into several poverty stricken districts, who must provide to the wealthy capitol.

• Every year, two tributes, a boy and a girl, are selected from each district to attend a mandatory battle to the death for public amusement. The Huger Games, as they are called, last several days or weeks, and are televised to every district.

• Each tribute is to travel to the Capitol for training and preparation for the games.

Rising Action• After about a week of preparation, the tributes are transferred to an

area which is to be their battleground. • The setting of this arena consists of a forest type environment, with a

large lake towards the center and a river running through the rest of the area.

• Katniss decides to try and get as far away from the battle as possible as to let the others fight it out.

• She learns that Peeta has teamed up with a group of “Career Tributes”• To try and better her situation, Katniss teams up with a small, smart,

and quick girl named Rue, who reminds her of her younger sister.• When Rue is killed by a spear, Katniss is forced to make her fist kill

with a Bow and Arrow.• The board in charge of the games then decides to make an allowance

to the rules, allowing two tributes from the same district to live.

Rising Action• With this new change, Katniss immediately begins her

search for Peeta, to team up with him.• She finds him nearly fatally wounded and very weak.• After fighting in the middle of the arena with other tributes,

she is able to come out with medication that will help cure Peeta.

• with only one tributes left, Peeta and Katniss decide to search for him, only to find that the capitol had created wolf-like creatures and placed them in the arena to kill them.

• After escaping the wolves, and killing the remaining tribute, Peeta and Katniss believe that they have finally completed the games.

Climax• When Katniss and Peeta are informed that the rule change has been

revoked, and that only one of them can be the winner, she decides to make a plan so they can.

• In order to get around the rules, Peeta and herself both agree to poison themselves with berries, knowing the capitol would not allow them to both die.

• The games are ended just moments before they swallow the berries, and they are transported back to the capitol for medical care.

Resolution• Once both Peeta and Katniss have been medically treated and

recovered, they attend the ending celebration, where they are honored for their accomplishments.

• Peeta then learns that Katniss doesn’t really love him and that she was only playing him in order to stay alive.

• They are both transported back to District 12 where they are to be given a home, fame, and wealth to await the new challenges of life.

Setting

• Takes place in a post war, futuristic world

• The Actual Hunger Games take place in an unknown remote locationoThe arena is composed of woodlands, a

river, a lake, and in the center, a golden Cornucopia.

Place

• The setting provides the book with a sense of mystery, being that since the characters have no idea where they are, neither does the reader.

• Allows for a more believable and understandable battleground

• Provides many necessary elements to accommodate the skills of different tributes

Time: Near Future

• The time frame allows the reader to imagine the endless possibilities that may take place in the arena

• The capitol seems to have the power to do whatever they want (i.e.. Medical, weapons, technology)

Themes

Fight To Stay Alive: This book emphasizes what people do in order to stay alive. People will go to extreme measures to ensure their safety, even when that means taking the life of an other human.

Government Control: A hint at the possibility of overwhelming government control is seen in this book in the form of the capitol’s forceful actions. Everything that the capitol does, is done while suppressing the surrounding districts.

Continuation Of Tradition: Although the Hunger Games are seen as a horrible tradition, they continue to be carried out. Like in many places of the world, extreme traditions are carried on, simply because they are the norm, and change is too hard.

RatingAfter reading this book I would award it an 8. I believed it was a very good book and deserving of a high rating, however, it dragged on for several hundred pages before reaching sequences of action. As the many pages of dull information provide necessary details for the background of the story, I believe it could be cut down to add to the thrill of the action. On the note of action, the book hooks the reader in with intense and suspenseful sequences of action. The Characters are developed well and allows the reader to connect to them and understand their ways of thinking. Overall, the book was very well written and very enjoyable.

• Suspenseful Action Sequences• Dramatic twists in character

development• Interesting/Hooks reader

RATING: 8

Social Issue

Poverty• As seen in this book, poverty

and the effects that follow it, is a very important issue in the world, and only seems to be growing into a larger problem. The world today suffers from poverty, and although certain places maintain great wealth(Capitol), others suffer greatly(Districts), which is portrayed in the novel. Because of its overwhelming effect, I believe it is the most important social issue expressed in the novel.

Poverty

• Poverty: the state of being extremely poor; the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount (Oxford American dictionary)

• The United States of America draws the poverty line at $10,830 for a single individual in the year 2009, while other countries have poverty lines drawn around $1.25 per day

• The unemployment rates that were observed in the year 2009 was approximately 10% ("Bureau of Labor Statistics ")

• Everyday 2,660 children are born into poverty; 27 die because of ito ("Hearts and Minds")

Poverty

• 25,000 hunger related deaths per day (Breen)

• local and state homeless groups have seen a 61% rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007 ("National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty")

• Florida, Herald Tribune has said that, by some estimates, more than 311,000 tenants nationwide have been evicted from homes this year after lenders took over the properties ("National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty")

Cycle of Poverty

• The major issues with poverty is that it is seen as an inescapable cycle, which a person may never be able to get out of

• Many of the effects of poverty are also the causes

• When a person is unable to find enough work to allow for a stable and supportive income, they may fall into this cycle of poverty

Poverty- Not a Choice

• Many people believe that poverty is an act of laziness and, as a result, it’s the person’s own fault for being poor

• Evidence shows that those who are born into and live in poverty hold different views and standards than those who were not born into poverty, and because of this, they have very little reason, if any, to strive for a more prosperous livingo ("Special Message to Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources

of Poverty”)

• They often become homeless, only affording the necessities that they can find. it may also become extremely difficult, if not impossible to find work

Results of Poverty

• Problems such as hunger, violence, drug abuse, and many other issues occur as a result of poverty

• Homeless leads to many ongoing issues related to health, food, violence, and in some cases drugs

• Violence and drug related incidents. Increases of poverty levels have been known to increase the levels of crime rates

Who is Effected

• Increase in homelessness rates results in an increase in the number of citizens on the streets, which has been seen to have and effect on crime rates and violence, of which, both indirectly affect the rest of the population

• individual’s use of drugs a bad practice, but it also forces them to remain in a state of poverty and criminal acts

• drugs used by the poor and homeless help to fund and generate a higher crime rate. Not to mention, many people who suffer from poverty will never have a chance of breaking free from it because of their habits

What is Being Done

• Many people provide donations of clothing and food to not only help the homeless, but to help the organizations as well

• Tax decreases and more financial freedom

• NLCHP's Housing Program ("National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty")

• Increase availability of full and/or part time jobs. Providing work for those who are jobless allows them to re-enter the market and begin a new socioeconomic level of involvement

• Passing of new tax cuts ("Special Message to Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty”)

Song

Mad World - Gary Jules

Click Click- Mad World

Blaming Poverty On the Poor

Give us your deprived, your malleable muddled masseshoping for a gentler taskmasterWelcome to the multi-trillion dollar industry, PovertyA.K.A, cheapest labor force

Poverty works, never ever unemployedA much needed commodity to justifyWhite-collar crime classesTeaching dastardly deeds—to procure monetary needs-fostering avarice greed

Give us your deprived, your malleable muddled masseshoping for a gentler taskmasterWelcome to the multi-trillion dollar industry, PovertyA.K.A., cheapest labor force

Poverty creates jobs for those financing the societalInstitution of ya godda pay more taxesBlaming Poverty on the poorLook! what Enron did to those less fortunateBlaming Poverty on the poor

Did not corporations want a billion dollar welfare checkBlaming Poverty on the poorBlaming Poverty on the poor

Give us your deprived, your malleable muddled masseshoping for a gentler taskmasterWelcome to the multi-trillion dollar industry, PovertyA.K.A., cheapest labor force

No penance just punishment augmenting the pillar of economic pillagingPoor people put in the pillory from the political pulpit

Poverty is prime propertyPoverty pimps portrayed as political preachers purely punitive but politeThe pluralization of Poverty provides prestige of the patricians

Poverty, the promissory note from the bureaucratic infidelThe Truth will tell—the truth will tellPoverty the patriotic prisoner on trial for treason

Video

YOU CAN END POVERTY

Works Cited

"Special Message to Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty." Special Message to Congress                  Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty (2009): 13. Middle Search Plus. Ebsco. Web. 22 Feb. 2010 "Effects Of Poverty." Effects Of Poverty. 1 1 2010. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <http://effectsofpoverty.com/>.      MacDonald, Heather. "A Crime Theory Demolished." Wall Street Journal (2010): n. pag. Web. 22 Feb  2010. Breen, John. "Hunger and World Poverty ." Poverty.com. Web. 18 Feb 2010. <www.poverty.com>.      Shah, Anup. "Causes Of Poverty." Global Issues. 7 12 2009. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-         of-poverty>. "Poverty and Drug Use." BookRags. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <http://www.bookrags.com/research/poverty-and-drug-use-dat-03/>. "Risk Factors For Violence Among Youth." Violence. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Topics/Violence/>. "Economic News Release." Bureau of Labor Statistics . 02 May 2010. United States Department of Labor, Web. 25 Feb 2010.          <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm>. "Program:Housing." National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. 18 2 2010. National Law Center on Homelessness          and Poverty, Web. 25 Feb 2010. <http://www.nlchp.org/program.cfm?prog=5>. "Children in Poverty." Hearts and Minds. 3 Mar 2007. Hearts and Minds Information for Change, Web. 27 Feb 2010.                          <http://www.heartsandminds.org/articles/childpov.htm>.