Approaching the Hunger Games Trilogy: A Literary and Cultural Analysis

There is a LOT of information in this book. The book starts out talking about how young adult fiction started to become more important during the 1960s. It also goes into what was considered to be 'literary' at different times, giving Moby Dick as an example and how things have changed since then.

The book notes how the trilogy was done in three parts per book and how they included young adult romance, science fiction, dystopia and a survivor story. The book includes the meaning of the berries, identity, gender and transgression and how Katniss is biologically a female but her behavior patterns include both male and female approaches to things.

It goes into how the Capitol of Snow manage to control the people in the districts through a variety of methods and how boys have an innate advantage in the games.

The books are anti-war in nature and this book discusses how that is, war propaganda, social commentary and activism. It also covers the ethics of inaction and what constitutes a pragmatist.

A very interesting section is how the hunger games themselves are an extension of different shows that are on today such as Survivor, Big Brother, various dating shows and other programs. It goes into how what is going on in society today The book also covers the fashion industry, climate change and the politics of scarcity. There's even material on fandom which is rarely discussed in books.

In addition to all of this there is a glossary of terms ( a very good idea ), a glossary of characters, questions for study, a bibliography and an index.

A very complete and very well done book.

Main Index