Pop Culture Influences on The Hunger Games Essay

Submitted By bigkp02
Words: 633
Pages: 3

Pop Culture Influences on The Hunger Games The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins is about a country called Panem that used to be North America. Panem is split into 12 different districts. Panem is forever in a war with the Capital, and because the capital controls Panem, every year they have the hunger games. The hunger games is when a boy and a girl from each 12 districts in Panem is chosen to fight to the death, literally. The story is told through the eyes of Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl who gets chosen to battle in the Hunger Games. This book is much different from the other books in its genre, because in most teen/young adult books, there isn’t much killing. The Hunger Games is definitely a new thing to books, because nobody has ever written something close to this. There are people fighting for their lives with nothing they can do to be able to keep from having to kill people. The Hunger Games is the ultimate game where you can’t rely on anyone, but yourself to save your life. There are no alliances, because in the end, there is nobody who will not turn their back on you. This book is definitely considered economically successful. Suzanne Collins went on to write two other books in the series and The Hunger Games had such a huge fan base that they made a movie based on the book. The book and movie were such a success they are continuing on with the second and third movies based off the second and third books. There are many cultural values challenged in this book. One of them being Freedom. The Hunger Games shows just how much people living like this long for their freedom back. You get connected to the characters in the book, feeling their wanting for change in their living conditions, government, and wanting to have a voice and opinion in society. Their country has been living like this for so long, most of the people living there have been living like that their whole lives. Another Cultural value challenged in this book is faith. Whether it be faith in humanity, or faith in God, faith in general is tested. The people in The Hunger Games lose faith in humanity for what the Capital is making them do. Teenagers who have never had a chance on life are having to go and fight each other and see who the ultimate winner is. The Hunger Games shows what it’s like to lose all