Have you heard of the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? I picked it up at the library because I have heard a lot of teenagers talking about it, and I want to stay current with what they are interested in so that when I start teaching again, I can find ways to connect with them.
There are some times when I really, deeply, truly regret doing something. Reading this book was one of those times.
I don’t usually rant about something, but I feel I must speak my mind about this book. While it is true that the author writes well, can create suspense, and certainly appeals to young adults through the uncertainty they face in relationships (the main character has a whole “does he, doesn’t he?” dilemma throughout the book), I must say that her use of violence was horrific and disturbing. The premise is a futuristic society built on the ruins of the USA, in which a tyrannical Capitol rules over twelve outlying districts with brutality. As penance for a past revolution that failed and left the thirteenth district utterly destroyed, the remaining twelve have to give up two tributes each year, a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to compete in a fight-to-the-death that is televised live to the entire society.
The comparison to Roman gladiator games is obvious, and I know the author is making a comment about the popularity of reality TV shows in today’s America. She said that she wanted to explore the effects of violence on today’s youth.
Excuse me. You are not exploring it. You are contributing to it.
This book gave me nightmares. It is written for teenagers, yet the violence is so graphically described that I couldn’t even imagine the rating it would get if it were ever made into a movie. Then my friend told me that it is being made into a movie! Yet how are teenagers being changed? After reading it, I felt like I had paid money to go see teenagers brutally kill each other, which has too many echoes of school shootings for me. I was horrified at the society that made this a national event, and yes, I would also say that the author is promoting it as well. There is so much violence incorporated into games and movies already. This book does not make teens look at our reality-show-society with new eyes and see how voyeuristic it is. Instead, it makes them wonder how they would fare if they were ever chosen as a tribute for the Hunger Games.
Just like Katniss, the main character, will be haunted by the death of her last rival in the arena, I will be haunted by horrific images of imaginary children dying brutal deaths at each others’ hands.
Philippians 4:8 says Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. There is a reason we are told to think of these things, rather than the things of this world.
