In a post-apocalyptic future, 24 teenagers must participate in a reality show in which they must kill or be killed. That is the premise of The Hunger Games, a young adult (!) novel by Suzanne Collins.
The book is set in the country of Panem, which occupies what was once North America. In Panem, 12 districts surround the Capitol, the seat of government and power. The protagonist of the book is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in District 12 (formerly Appalachia), one of the poorest districts. Her father has died five years before, and her family now consists of her younger sister Prim—whom she loves—and her mother,whom she has contempt for. In fact, with a few exceptions, Katniss has contempt for most people she meets.
For the benefit of those who would like to read the book, I won’t get into many plot details. I will say that Collins is a skillful storyteller, and it was easy to keep reading. I will also say that, for reasons other than Collins’s storytelling skills, the book was a disappointment for me. I felt that Katniss was not a likable protagonist from the beginning, and she did not change significantly over the course of the book. The book comes across as deterministic in the way that it presents the world. There are no surprising twists. The Capitol is in charge and no one can do anything about it. The only thing anyone can do is look out for the welfare of themselves and the people they care about. In this way, it reminded me of Thomas Hobbes’s description of the state of nature, where it is a war of all against all, and life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Hobbes says this condition obtains where there is no single power to keep everyone in awe. I heard Collins saying, through her story, that this condition also obtains where there is a single power, but it is in that power’s interest to deprive others of any kind of security.
If I were the parent of young adults who read this book, I would probably want to talk to them about the deterministic (or possibly fatalistic?) worldview of the books, and whether it accurately depicted the world as it is. I don’t believe that it does, but I do believe that there are many determinists among us. Collins, apparently, is one.
I am not sure that I would say that this story is from a ‘deterministic worldview’ akin to Hobbes description of the state of nature. If anything, Collins is commenting on the nature of the state and political corruption. I hear more Chomsky than Hobbes. But I agree that I didn’t find Katniss a compelling protagonist. To my mind the second book (Catching Fire) is the best of the series, but the finale defies the rules of credible fiction for me.
Maybe you’re right; maybe I am imputing determinism to Collins when that isn’t entirely what is going on. At any rate, there is a lot more despair than hope in this book. When I was a teenager, I was as moody as they come. Reading something like this wouldn’t have helped me shape a healthy view of the world.
I am interested in seeing how they make it all “pg-13″ in the film adaptation. Because, you know, kids killing kids is kind of brutal.
THG was a page-turner. I got tired of the whole thing halfway through Catching Fire, and I haven’t read Mockingjay.
Most if not all of our middle/high school students have read the series. I agree with your statement: “Reading something like this wouldn’t have helped me shape a healthy view of the world.” I should ask them how they feel about the themes.