Hunger Games And Elsewhere Literary Analysis

Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games tell two completely different tales by using unrealistic situations and settings to describe adolescence. They show many aspects of life as a young adult, despite being in imagined worlds. They focus on identity, finding your voice, growing up and adjusting to your surroundings, and even love. Liz in Elsewhere has unexpectedly died and now finds herself in Elsewhere, where everyone ages backwards until eventually they are born again. Liz is very stubborn at first, in denial where she is and not coming to terms with the fact that even though she is dead, she gets to live. Throughout Zevin’s novel, she finds her identity. She gets to grow up (even though she’s aging backwards)

On the other hand, Katniss in The Hunger Games is trying to live for a whole different reason. Throughout the novel, Katniss is put into dangerous and unrealistic situations where she is forced to fight for her survival. But throughout it, she adjusts to what’s around her and realizes even more the corruptness of Panem. Katniss is forced to care for her sister and mother after the death of her father, taking on the role of caregiver. She matures, especially when she heroically takes the place of her sister in the Hunger Games and fights back against the other tributes in the Games, often outsmarting them. Katniss has to learn to find herself in order to survive. In terms of love, Katniss has a developing love-triangle forming as well, between her childhood friend Gale, and her partner in the Hunger Games, Peeta. This is something that doesn’t come to term by the end of the novel. These two books present young adult aspects in the form of life after death and trying not to die in a dangerous situation. Both Katniss and Liz have to grow through their novels, coming to terms with somewhat difficult situations, and attempting to find themselves, mirror similar tribulations a young adult goes