Hunger Games Final

Surname 1

Student’s Name:

Professor’s Name:

Course:

Date:

1. Executive Summary

The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins based on an imaginary

introduced as remains of North America. In the first of the trilogy books, Suzanne Collins

introduces the hunger games competition which is an annual competition where twenty-four

competitors fight to stand, with the last competitor standing being declared the winner. Prim,

Katniss’s sister, was selected to represent her district at The Hunger Games. Katniss volunteered

to take up her sister’s place instead. Katniss had developed into a master of the bow and arrow

from her numerous sneak-ins to the woods, a skill that came handy in The Hunger Games.

Alongside her fellow representative of District 12 Peeta, Katniss defeated the other fighters.

They rebelled against the Capitol’s rules of fighting until one tribute died, and instead, decided to

take poison to commit suicide; a move that saw Capitol alter their rules to save the two.

The Hunger Games depicted different themes throughout the story. Suzanne Collins was

able to display the theme of class disparity, power of love, sacrifice, rebellion and stoicism.

Suzanne Collins used The Hunger Games to portray the problems the poor people go through,

how the government and the rich oppress the poor and how self-belief combined by self-

strengths can transform one into a victor.

Surname 2

The Hunger Games novel revolves around the life of the main protagonist, Katniss

Everdeen, a brave girl aged sixteen years to volunteered to participate in The Hunger Games in

place for her younger sister, Prim.

2. Introduction

The Hunger Games is a book authored by Suzanne Collins, an American writer born in

1962 to a US Air Force father. The first book on the trilogy series was published in 2008 and

went on to become Suzanne Collins bestselling piece of work. As the other two books followed

soon after, the greatest success of this book came in the year 2012 when the books were turned

into a trilogy of movies with the same titles. The three movies have received wide positive

reception among the movie theaters; a move that has immortalized Suzanne Collins work. Born

in Hartford, Connecticut, Suzanne Collins grew up watching war footage of the Vietnam war and

got a clear glimpse of the war, especially because her father served in the Vietnam war for a

year. Coming from a family of war veterans, Suzanne Collin was influenced to do something

about war herself. While watching the war footage of the Iraq and Afghanistan, Suzanne

developed the idea that would materialize into The Hunger Games.

3. Annotated Bibliography

"The Hunger Games Summary." Shmoop.com. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.

The shmoop.com is an online platform that provides a summary of the play “The Hunger

Games”. It seeks to analyses the whole play giving a time by time occurrence of events. The

online gives a chapter by chapter analysis and explains lessons and themes developing in the

Surname 3

story. Katniss volunteers to fight for her sister who was selected to join the annual Hunger

Games event.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy. Scholastic UK, 2013

Suzanne Collins narrates the hardships of life in the country, Panem. Starvation is one of

the hardships and it has been a common thing in the country which has left a lot of citizens in the

12 districts hungry and being forced to exploit their natural resources. Citizens have been so

worried about where they would obtain their next meal for them so that they would continue

living. This has forced them into cheap labor. An annual ceremony known as Hunger Games is a

form of excitement. They said that it was a source of wealth and brought pride to the people of

Panem. This ceremony involves fighting to death for youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18,

where out of twenty-four fighters, only one survives.

Canar, Alison. "The Hunger Games." (2008): 16

According to Alison Canar, the participants in the play demonstrated violence over

children. Under the control of powers, the districts sacrificed one boy and a girl annually as a

punishment for past rebellion (Canar 16). Katniss volunteers to fight for her younger sister who

was selected for the fight that year. Katniss takes the position so that she could fight in her place.

4. The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games begin with the introduction of the main protagonist, Katniss

Everdeen, a teenage girl who wakes up early in the morning to get ready for the reaping day. The

narrator, Katniss, leaves the readers in suspense when she asks what The Hinger Games refers to,

when in fact, she should be the one telling the readers the these games are (Shmoop para 1). The

Surname 4

Hunger Games are held every year where each of the twelve districts contribute two tributes who

fight to death at the arena. The games are held at the Capitol, the head of the Panem Country,

which is also the seat of power. The Hunger Games dated back to at least 74 years ago when the

first game was held following the Treaty of Treason. The Treaty of Treaty was the agreement by

the twelve districts following a rebellion that led to war between the districts and the Capitol.

During the war, the twelve districts were defeated while one district, the thirteenth district, was

destroyed and its citizens killed. Following the war, a ceasefire treaty was established to bring

peace to the country. The Treaty of Treason established The Hunger Games which were to

punish the districts for their rebellion against the Capitol.

District 12 was the poorest among the twelve districts and was inhabited by coal miners

(Ebert 2). The book begins by describing the day, the reaping day. The reaping day refers to the

day when the Capitol would select tributes to participate in the games at the arena in the Capitol

(Collins, The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy 6). The tributes, according to the Suzanne

Collins refer to the two teenagers selected to represent each district at The Hunger Games.

Children qualified for selection once they attained twelve years old. When the teenager attained

thirteen years, his or her name would receive two entries. Every other year attracted another

entry until the individual reached eighteen years, after which, the individual became ineligible

for the competitions. The poor families bore the brunt of these competitions. This is because,

when a poor family had no food or were starving, the Capitol would offer them food in exchange

for having the eligible person’s name entered once more to the pool for the reaping. by her

twelfth birthday, Katniss had her name appearing four times in the reaping pool.

In the morning, on the reaping day, Katniss sets off for the woods. The woods are

generally a forested area that is enclosed in an electric fence to keep off wild animals, commonly

Surname 5

known as predators by the District 12 residents. Despite the area being a no-go-zone, Katniss and

her friend Gale often sneak in to hunt game animals to feed their families. Katniss and Gale want

to gather enough food doe their families before the commencement of the reaping process later

in the evening.

During the reaping process, every qualified individual is supposed to be in reaping

uniform. The process was covered by cameras and aired live of TV. The Capitol followed the

reaping process very closely. The convention place for District 12, commonly known as the

center stage, the Mayor Undersee, sat on the stage together with District 12’s escort, Effie

Trinklet, whom the latter is described by Suzanne Collins as “pink-haired escort from the

Capitol,” (Collins 8). All the residents stood near the stage following the events closely.

Previously, only one tribute from District 12 had won the competition while the others bit dust

terribly. This failure by District 12 tributes put fear in other qualified tributes as they feared they

would face a similar fate. There were two glass balls containing the names of the qualified

individuals from District 12. The escort, Effie, pulled out the names from glass balls beginning

with the ladies. To the amazement of all, the representative of District 12 was Primrose

Everdeen. Katniss was hesitant as thought of her younger sister fighting it out with young men

aged six years older than her crossed her mind. Despite Prim’s name appearing once in the

reaping pool, her name came top. Katniss could not imagine her twelve-year-old sister at the

front line, and in a quick thought, stepped out from the crowd to take her sister’s place at The

Hunger Games. The rules of the game allowed a selected individual to be replaced by another

individual, if the volunteer individual ticked all the qualification boxes. Katniss Everdeen

became District 12’s representative at the annual warfare event along with Peeta Mellark, a

young man she so well knew.

Surname 6

The second part of the book covered the fighting event. All the twenty-four tributes are

taken to the arena, which is basically a prison-like structure where they cannot escape. Katniss

and Peeta were assigned three assistants to assist them with the preparations who included

Haymitch, the only living Hunger Games winner form District 12. During the fight which lasted

several days, Katniss fathomed that Peeta, who had agreed to team up with her to increase their

chances of winning the competition, had teamed up with another group of fighters, Career

Tributes. Career Tributes were a group of wealthy kids who wanted to compete at The Hunger

Games as a fulfilment of their desires (Blasingame 725).

During the first night of the fight, Katniss realizes that the Career Tributes are

approaching her hideout. Just then, Katniss sees Rue, a young and small girl who hailed from

District 11. Standing same size as Prim, Rue reminded Katniss of her younger sister, Prim, and

decided to protect her. Rue points at the tracker jackers wasps, a form of weapon made by the

Capitol. Katniss releases the wasps on the Career Tributes killing two of them. Katniss runs

away from the wasps but recalls that one of the two Career Tributes had a bow and arrows, and

heads back for them. At that time, she sees Peeta in the company of the other Career Tributes.

Katniss meets Rue again and their friendship grows. They manage to blow up Career Tributes’

food supplies at the Cornucopia. Soon after, Rue is killed by a member of another tribute, and

Katniss, in revenge, kills the tribute and buries Rue in flowers.

A new rule is announced allowing tributes from the same district to team up and be

declared victors. Katniss searches for Peeta and finds him with a severe injury. She carries him to

a cave where they hide from the other tributes. Katniss realizes that by playing the romance card,

they would get rewards from Haymitch. The following day, Haymitch supplies them with

medicine but Katniss must get it from Cornucopia, a journey that claims another life of a tribute,

Surname 7

but this time, with the help of District 11 male tribute who is grateful to Katniss for her goodwill

towards Rue.

Katniss and Peeta are forced to walk towards the lake when their sources of water in the

woods dry up. Along the way, Cato, the Career Tribute member who injured Peeta, comes

running after them. Katniss realizes that mutant wolves are chasing him and together they run

towards and climb up the Cornucopia. A fight ensures as Cato charges at Peeta but the former is

overpowered and to the waiting mutant wolves who devour him. Katniss kills him to save him

from the pain inflicted by the wolves.

Katniss and Peeta are the two tributes standing. Capitol plans to have them turn against

each other by announcing that only one tribute can win. Since none of them is willing to kill each

other, Katniss devices a way to have both win the games or die together. They collected

poisonous berries to commit double suicide, but just before they killed themselves, the

announcer’s voice notified them of the change of rules which stated that two tributes from one

district could win. The two winners were taken back to the Training Center, but Katniss was

briefly held. Haymitch was at hand to caution Katniss that the Capitol was not happy with her

decision to commit double suicide and that it positioned her, her family or people close to her

were at risk. Katniss explains her act to the Capitol that it was out of the fear of losing her love,

Peeta, that she contemplated suicide and ruled out defiance and rebellion. She wins over the

Capitol and they head back to District 12 as heroes.

There are several themes that develop from this story. The theme of sacrifice is widely

seen in the story The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Katniss sacrificed her life when she

took her sister’s place. Even though she understood the dangers of participating in the hunger

Surname 8

games event, she saved her sister from sure death took the risk. Katniss and Peeta sacrificed their

victory for the sake of each other when they threatened to kill themselves (Cedars and

Weinbloom 1). The theme of power of love is seen when Katniss felt uneasy when Peeta was

selected to join the hunger games. She would not contemplate the thought of killing Peeta as he

had helped her out of love when her father died. Katniss and Peeta decide to kill themselves to

avoid killing each other as they loved each other (Cedars and Weinbloom 1). The theme of class

is seen when Katniss and Gale encounter Madge, the Mayor’s daughter, who had the least

chances of being selected because her name appeared fewer times, unlike Katniss name which

appeared severally (SparkNotes 1).

The theme of rebellion is seen in the totalitarian regime ruling Panem. The regime

reminds the twelve districts of their rebellion at least seventy-four years ago and prohibits them

from uniting. The districts are largely separated from each other and enclosed in electric fence to

keep them isolated (GradeSaver para. 13). The theme of revolution is seen in Katniss desire to

bring changes to the system. During the games, the system preaches death against the tributes

hoping to influence the districts to turn against each other just as tributes turn against each other.

Katniss shows love to Rue and Peeta and only attacks other tributes for self-defense. The defies

the order to kill Peeta and changes that year’s rules when together and Peeta, they are declared

winners (GradeSaver para. 13). Katniss understood that the other tributes were not the true

enemies, but the leadership of Panem in the Capitol was.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has attracted reviews from around the world and

been used for educational purposes in institutions of higher learning. Suzanne Collins was able to

explain the happenings in the society in a piece of art that was as information as it entertained.

Surname 9

References

Blasingame, James. "The Hunger Games." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.2 (2009):

724-726.

Canar, Alison. "The Hunger Games." Children's Book and Media Review (2008): 16.

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2858&context=cbmr.

Cedars, S.R. and Elizabeth Weinbloom. The Hunger Games Themes. GradeSaver. 6 December

2012. http://www.gradesaver.com/the-hunger-games/study-guide/themes. 11 March

2018.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy. London: Scholastic UK, 2013.

The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy. London: Scholastic UK, 2013.

Ebert, Roger. The Hunger Games. Chicago: Chicago Sun-Times, 2012.

GradeSaver. The Hunger Games Themes. 2018. http://www.gradesaver.com/the-hunger-

games/study-guide/themes. 14 March 2018.

Shmoop. The Hunger Games Summary. 2016. https://www.shmoop.com/hunger-

games/summary.html. 11 March 2018.

SparkNotes. Themes. 13 December 2012. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-

games/themes/. 11 March 2018

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Paper type

Deadline

Page count

550 words

Total price: $ 15.00

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

USA, Student

"I'm fully satisfied with the essay I've just received. When I read it, I felt like it was exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t find the necessary words. Thank you!"

Ian McGregor

UK, Student

"I don’t know what I would do without your assistance! With your help, I met my deadline just in time and the work was very professional. I will be back in several days with another assignment!"

Shannon Williams

Canada, Student

"It was the perfect experience! I enjoyed working with my writer, he delivered my work on time and followed all the guidelines about the referencing and contents."

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

Ian McGregor

Shannon Williams