A Therapist's Take on The Hunger Games

I inhaled Suzanne Collin's trilogy this past week (new Precor elliptical machine + iPad = 220+ pages/hour), and wanted to share my thoughts about this iconic cultural series.

There WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW in order to talk about this in any depth.


First, two overall general comments:

1) The districts and the Capitol make a stark commentary on society.

The discrepancy between the wealth of the Capitol and the poor people in the districts is a major part of this book that struck me. The Capitol and its inhabitants are portrayed as living in gross excess while Katniss and others try to survive every day on meager rations.

Those in the Capitol only care about what they wear or how they look. Effie Trinket and Ceasar Flickerman become the key examples in the book.

2) The Hunger Games turn reality television into a monster.

In truth, the television shows that are popular today aren't all that far off from teenagers killing each other. You might scoff, but Fear Factor and Ninja Warrior among others are prime examples of our culture being fascinated with violence and grotesqueness. That everyone in the Capitol looks forward to these Games as the epitome of entertainment (which is reminiscent of gladiator games) should be revolting to the reader, and it is. Death for entertainment...let's film every second.


More specifically, though, I want to focus on Katniss and what I believe her character conveys to readers.

She's a SURVIVOR, but to her moral detriment.

She does whatever it takes to stay alive. I get that. She becomes a mother to Prim. She disobeys district laws to hunt. She listens to Haymitch. She saws the tracker jacker nest at her own peril. She's going to push the Capitol 's buttons with those nightlock berries.

Perhaps most troubling, though, is that she lies to Peeta and the district audience by making him and everyone think she truly loves him, when at best, her feelings are confused. I realize that she does this under duress, but I'm not fond of this aspect of the story for obvious reasons. What does this teach teens? 

She's COMPASSIONATE, but kick butt.

We see her volunteering for Prim, a truly self-sacrificing act. She's trying to sell baby clothes for money to feed her family. She sings to Rue and buries her in flowers. She won't leave Peeta to die, and quite literally risks her life to get him that medicine.

And was it just me, or was Katniss like a PowerPuff girl on crack? It seemed Peeta ended up maimed physically or emotionally in each book...and somehow Katniss brings him back. Definite role reversal from the strong, white knight rescuing the damsel in distress.

She's BELLA SWAN, but stronger. 

Come on! She's got hotties Gale and Peeta who love her, and she literally strings them along (and the reader, of course) until the very end of the series. She kisses each of them almost willy-nilly. I believe Collins conveys Katniss' confusion about her feelings for both of them very well, but I thought she took a cheap shot at Gale in Book 3 and jipped us a satisfactory conclusion of their relationship. (Notice I didn't say of the love triangle. I thought that was handled quite well....real or not real? :)

Let's Analyze:

If you've seen the movie version of the book, did you like it? Lacking the internal monologue for Katniss definitely left a hole in the movie. I found myself telling my husband little details I thought were important to the overall story but were left out...ah, the limitations of film. But Stanley Tucci was the most perfect Caesar Flickerman, as was Woody Harrelson's Haymitch. Awesome casting.

A Therapist's Take on Veronica Roth's Divergent and Dystopian Fiction

I had a friend (waves at Heather) request that I read Veronica Roth's Divergent before singularly dismissing dystopian fiction. So I did, and enjoyed it. I haven't read The Hunger Games, though I suspect that I will now. Even so, dystopian fiction doesn't have much to recommend it to me (besides gazillions of copies being sold in the current trend).

Some Dilemmas with Dystopian

1) The World is Bad Enough Already.

Why would I want to use the little free time I have during which I usually engage in escapism to a better world, to read about a world that is worse? In Divergent, Tris lives in a world I don't want to live in. So how do you get people to read your book? What's the takeaway? Why should I emotionally invest in such a book?

2) You have Lots of Explaining to do.

You have to be a good writer to write dystopian. I have to want to stick it out through the rather lengthy explanations of why the world is now as awful as it is. What catastrophic event happened after 2012? How depraved did humankind get and why? And what's the new regime look like? This takes precious pages...and Roth does a great job.

3) You have to Suspend Readers' Disbelief.

There is crazy, futuristic stuff that happens in these books. Roth's initiation of Tris into the Dauntless faction had my eyebrows raising. Jumping off buildings? Falling into holes? Climbing in and jumping out of moving trains? Beating each other up? Mind-altering drugs? Who would sign up for this? Tris would and did....with a good enough reason that I never doubted her decision.

Review of Divergent

Chicago's population is divided into 5 factions, which weren't random, but rather a steeply ingrained version of high school stereotypes (let's not forget this is a YA novel).

Candor (the honest) = socially incompetent/awkward
Erudite (the intelligent) = nerds
Amity (the peaceful) = hippies
Dauntless (the brave) = jocks
Abnegation (the selfless) = religious folk
Factionless = rejects

Now I realize the above might seem a gross generalization, but as the novel progressed, I was still struck with how Roth accurately portrayed each sect from my own high school. I could relate to the factions, though each were taken to an extreme version I didn't personally recognize.

I imagine each reader was internally selecting which faction they would have joined if they had been 16 and about to undergo initiation. This draws a reader into the story immediately, and of course we wait with bated breath to know which faction Beatrice would join.

The book focuses on Tris' initiation into one of the factions, and an incredible, dangerous secret that sets her apart from the other initiates. Truly, Divergent is a story of a girl trying to find a place where she fits in. She's awkward at first, the equivalent of a girl who would be picked last for any sports team. Eventually she changes, physically and emotionally, to one more accepted and not so easily discounted.

Yet even within in her chosen faction, she's not always likely to do as they would hope she would do, which complicates her life, yet she seems unable to stop. She's still trying to fit in, but her own personality (and secret) make it difficult to do so. She's unique, and being a clone doesn't suit her, which is a nice takeaway lesson for young adults everywhere.

Roth, a Christian, wrote a romantic element in her book that maintains Christian values of purity and chastity while still keeping things exciting. She also addresses family relations that are far from perfect, which come with lasting emotional trauma and fear, competitiveness within friendships, and sibling connections that rise above dissimilarities.

It was a good read, and I'm glad I read it. I hated the way it ended, which essentially meant I immediately logged onto Amazon and got Book Two, Insurgent. You'll do the same if you read this book...but that means Veronica Roth did her job.

Let's Analyze

Have you read Divergent? What did you think about my breakdown of the factions?