Examples Of Dystopia In The Hunger Games

I volunteer as _____. Fill in the blank. Whether you read the books, saw the movie, or just heard about it from friends and family, ‘I volunteer as tribute!’ became one of the most popular lines from Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games (Collins 22). This series is widely accepted as one of the – if not simply, the – most popular young adult dystopian novels. But why; why The Hunger Games? Of all the young adult dystopian novels, why this one in particular? The Hunger Games, as a young adult dystopian novel, became the one of the most well-known due to its presentation of the problems of today in a completely different world therefore highlighting its absurdities and using a protagonist who relates to the audience through the first-person perspective

A dystopia are defined as “an imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible” (Warmkessel). The genre of dystopian novels has certain defining characteristics including a female instigator, the protagonist undergoing self-exploration, and an oppressive government (Stoner). A female instigator was introduced into the genre more recently to highlight the importance of human compassion in these novels; the female instigator acts against oppression – usually the oppressive government. In The Hunger Games, the instigator is the first person the audience meets, Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of the story (Collins 23). The audience learns that today is “reaping day ” (Collins 11). When Primrose ’s name is chosen, Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister’s place. District 12 never sees volunteers because “tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word, corpse” (Collins 22). This is the first time we see Katniss break the standard to do what she believes is right. She continually shows rebellion throughout the novel, including shooting “an arrow at the Gamemakers ” and trying to commit suicide at the end of the Hunger Games to undermine its climax of having a victor (Collins 106, 344). Overall, her inability to sit idly by when something unjust is happening proves to be a standard characteristic of dystopian protagonists

When talking with Haymitch Abernathy to prepare for her pre-Games interview, she tries different personas including “humble” and “cocky” and fierce and “witty” and “funny” and “sexy” and “mysterious” yet none of them work for her and Haymitch gives up (Collins 118). She feels inferior watching the other tributes pick one trait and play it up during the interviews because she cannot embody only one part of her personality (Collins 125). She takes Cinna’s advice to be herself and during her interview, she sets her priority – winning the Hunger Games for her sister. In this solemn moment, the reader gets a closer look into what she is fighting for (Collins 129). In the actual Games, she struggles with the idea of killing; before leaving District 12 to go to training, Gale tells her “it’s just hunting” but when she commits her first kill by shooting Marvel with an arrow, she cannot help but think of his family “weeping for him” (Collins 40, 243). This compassion she shows for Marvel, the male tribute from District 1, proves to herself that she finds something wrong not only with the idea of killing people but also with the entirety of