THE HUNGER GAMESSuzanne Collins, New York, US Scholastic Inc., 2008

The Hunger Games is

a contemporary play a contemporary short story a contemporary novel a contemporary poem

It is a contemporary novel set in the future.

What do ‘the Hunger Games’ in the title refer to?

Some years ago, the districts in a country lost a hard-fought rebellion against the Capitol. As part of their punishment, every year, the Capitol requires each district to send a boy and a girl to compete in a sort of twisted reality TV show where, in order to win, you have to be the only person to survive — even if it means killing everyone who stands in your way.

They are a reminder that not only must the Dark Days, the uprising of the Districts against the Capitol, not be repeated but that the citizens are at their mercy .

People must treat the Games as an occasion for festivity. The winner receives a life of ease and the winning district is showered with prizes.

Setting

Setting : What do the following place names refer to?

1. Panem

2. the Capitol

3. a District

4. District 12

5. the Seam

6. the Hob

7. the Square

8. the Training Centre

9. the Arena

10. the Cornucopia

Panem

Panem is the name of the country which was formed when the North American government collapsed. A sort of totalitarian society reigns there: the rights of one group are protected while other groups are prevented from enjoyingthe same rights and forced to live a life chosen

for them. The government seems to be more concerned with keeping its citizens under

control than helping them live their lives to the fullest.

The Capitol

This is the name of the capital of the country built in the Rockies which form a natural barrier between it and the rest of the country.

A District

Panem is divided into 12 fenced-in districts run by the Capitol . The districts all have to work to feed the enormously rich and technologically advanced capital, the Capitol. Throughout The Hunger Games, Katniss describes ways that the Capitol wields control over the districts to the extent that it essentially exploits them, leaving the people there so downtrodden that they are unable to do anything about the unfair situation.

The boundaries of the districts are enclosed by electric fences, supposedly for the people's protection.

District 12

Katniss and Gale live in this district where people mainly work in coal mines. It is one of the poorest.

Katniss's trip to the Capitol reveals the vast differences in the amount of technology available in the districts and the Capitol. While the Capitol has fancy showers and vast amounts of food that can be delivered at the push of a button, the people in District 12 are lucky simply to avoid starvation.

The Seam

This is the nickname used for a part of District 12, the part Katniss lives in with her family.

A seam a junction or visible line, especially the edges of two pieces of cloth. It also means a thin stratum or layer of rock. (Webster).

The Hob

The name of the black market in District 12

which operates in an abandoned warehouse

that once held coal.

Katniss and Gale sell what they catch here.

The Square

The square is in the middle of the town. It is where the reaping is held on a stage in front of the Justice Building.

The Training Centre

All the tributes are brought here to be prepared for the Games. They receive makeovers and training. Each district is assigned its own floor.

Just before the games each tribute reveals its secret strength to the Gamemakers ; this will determine the odds for betting on the likely winner.

The Arena

The vast arena is where the tributes, who are constantly observed by all of Panem, are sent to at the start of the Games. It is really more like a wilderness zone filled with hidden dangers.

The Cornucopia

The cornucopia is …. in the middle of the arena. At the start of the Games, the tributes have the option of racing to the cornucopia that is filled with much-needed supplies, or running for cover in the woods.

Characters

Characters:1. Katniss Everdeen2. Gale3. Prim(rose)4. Peeta Mellark5. Haymitch6. Elfie Trinket7. Peacekeepers8. Tributes9. Careers10.Racketeers11.Rue12. Prep team

1. Katniss Everdeen

The protagonist of the novel, she is sixteen years old and has been the main provider in the family since her father’s death.

She is the female contestant from District 12 in the Games.

2. Gale

Gale is Katniss’ hunting partner and friend. They have been illegally hunting for years in order to secure enough food for their fatherless families. He is the only person with whom she can be herself although there is nothing romantic between them.

3. Prim(rose)

Prim is Katniss’ twelve-year-old sister. Their father was killed in an explosion at the coal mine.

They live together with their mother whose parents were part of the small merchant class that catered to officials, Peacekeepeers and occasional Seam customers. They ran an apothecary shop.

When the reaping takes place it's not Katniss whose name is drawn, but Prim's and Katniss volunteers to participate to protect her.

4. Peeta Mellark

The boy from District 12 who was chosen to take part in the Hunger games with Katniss. He is the baker’s son and gave her some bread many years before when her family was starving.

Katniss is confused by Peeta. At times,

she feels suspicious of his motives — after all, in order to survive himself, he must want her dead. But at other times, Peeta just seems friendly and kind.

5. Haymitch

The last person from District 12

to have won the Games and as a result is Katniss and Peeta’s coach.

He encourages them , to show affection for each other in order to win the audience's favour.

6. Elfie Trinket

District 12’s escort to the Games. She is a ‘maniacally upbeat woman’ (p.9) who arrives to the district once a year to read out the names at the reaping and does so in a Capitol accent.

7. The Peacekeepers

People who are paid by the Capitol to supposedly enforce its laws but often look the other way. In fact, they're regular customers of District 12's black market.

8. The Tributes

The name given to the contestants in the Hunger Games.

9. Careers

The careers are the most feared tributes in the competition. They are trained from birth to compete in the Games.

10.Racketeers

Those who take bets on Reaping Day. They are also informers.

11. Rue

The youngest contestant in the Games. Katniss forms an alliance — and even a friendship — with her.

Together, they form a plan to destroy the food supply of the Careers. Armed with her bow and arrow, Katniss pulls off the sabotage — but when she reunites with Rue, she finds her new friend caught in a trap and run through with a spear.

(Thresh, another tribute, is from the same district as Rue and saves Katniss’ life once for what she did for Rue.)

12 Prep team

The members of the team at the Training Centre that help the tributes prepare for the Games: Cinna is the stylist and it’s his first year in the Games; Vania, Flavius, Octavia and Atala (the head trainer) are the other members of the team.

1. The reaping2. Tesserae

Vocabulary

The reaping is a sort of lottery that will decide which two children from each district will be chosen as the year's Hunger Games tributes.

Each child is eligible at 12 when their name is entered once; it is entered twice at 13 and so on until the age of 18 when one’s name is in the pool seven times.

It is a very unfair system as the poor always come off worst as the one gets rewarded for entering one’s name.

Katniss has been entering his name often so as to provide for his mother and sister. The year of the story, her name will be in the pool 20 times and Gale, 42 times.

Everyone has to attend the ceremony while the 12 to 18-year-olds are roped into an enclosed area with cameras on them so that the authorities can keep tabs on them!

2. Tesserae

A tessera is a year’s supply of grain and oil for one person given in exchange for each time one’s name is added to the lottery used to pick contestants.

Narrator

Narrator:1. From whose point of view is the story told?

a. an omniscient narratorb. the main character c. a minor character

2. Is the narrator a. reliableb. unreliable

The main character, a girl called Katniss, narrates the story but it can be unreliable at times. Though Katniss is usually honest about her own feelings, she doesn't always understand the thoughts and feelings of others, most notably when it comes to Peeta. For most of the book, Katniss thinks Peeta is only pretending to love her when it's obvious to other characters — and to readers — that his feelings are real.

Similarly, readers have an idea of what Katniss feels for Gale (or at least understand her confusion) but they, like Katniss, have no idea if Gale has any romantic feelings for her. Katniss doesn't fully understand the motivations of many other characters, including Cinna, her stylist. At times, readers may wish for a broader perspective, but not only does Katniss's narration keep readers in suspense, but it also helps them get to know Katniss thoroughly.

1.What type of narrative is it?

a. a first-person narrativeb. a third-person narative

2. What tense is used?

It is a first-person narrative written in the present tense.

How does this affect the story?

By hearing the main character tell the story as it happens, readers are drawn directly into the action-packed plot. Hearing about events as they unfold adds to the suspense factor — especially since Katniss doesn't know anything before readers do. If Katniss were speaking in the first person, but past tense, readers would know that she had survived the Hunger Games.

Using Katniss as a narrator provides readers with access to her innermost thoughts.

Readers have an idea of what Katniss feels for Gale but they, like Katniss, have no idea if Gale has any romantic feelings for her. Katniss doesn't fully understand the motivations of many other characters, including Cinna, her stylist. Not only does Katniss's narration keep readers in suspense, but it also helps them get to know Katniss thoroughly.

Acts of Defiance.

Katniss forms an alliance — and even a friendship — with Rue, the youngest tribute in the Games.When she finds her new friend caught in a trap and run through with a spear. Katniss sings to her until she dies. In an act of defiance to the Capitol and decorates Rue's dead body with flowers, refusing to let the people of Panem watch Rue's death and think of it as inconsequential.

Katniss proposes to Peeta that they simultaneously eat poison berries, knowing that the Capitol won't want to lose face by having both contestants die. Sure enough, a final announcement hastily declares the Hunger Games over — both Katniss and Peeta have won.

What elements suggest Panem could be a totalitarian society?

Travel between districts is forbidden.

There are cameras spying on people everywhere.

At school, only basic reading and maths is taught while all the other subjects are coal-related.

Every week pupils need to listen to a lecture on the history of Panem and propaganda on how much its citizens owe the Capitol.

A cliffhanger…

Since The Hunger Games closes with a cliffhanger, and it is the first volume in a trilogy, it's obvious there's much left to learn about Katniss and her world.

What do you think could be explored in the next volumes?

Readers will most likely learn about what happened in District 12 during the Hunger Games.

The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale will definitely be further developed.

On a wider scale, it's likely that readers will also discover that the consequences of Katniss's actions in the Hunger Games will continue to reverberate. The Capitol will not soon forget Katniss's act of defiance despite her excuse of undying love, and will keep a close eye on her.

The Hunger Games included hints of resistance so it seems likely that as the series develops, another organized rebellion will form against the Capitol.

About the book …

The concept of the book isn’t particu larly original — a nearly identical premise is explored in “Battle Royale,” a wondrously gruesome Japanese novel that has been spun off into a popular manga series.

Suzanne Collins began writing for children's television in 1991 and has worked on the staffs of several successful shows. Including She was also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for her work on the television Christmas special, Santa, Baby!

An encounter with a children's author encouraged Collins to try writing children's books herself. Inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland, she wrote Gregor the Overlander, the first book in the Underland Chronicles, a bestselling series about a boy who, rather than falling down a rabbit hole, discovers a secret world beneath New York City. The fifth and final book in the Underland Chronicles was published in 2007. Collins has also written a picture book called When Charlie McButton Lost Power (2005).

The Hunger Games is the first book in a new series for Collins, but, like the Underland Chronicles, it explores the effects of war and violence on children. Collins also found her inspiration from a

childhood interest in mythology — particularly the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Suzanne Collins currently lives with her family and two cats in Connecticut. Further information on Collins and her books can be found on her website: http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/.

About the author…

Bibliography

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Murphy, New York, US Scholastic 2008

NoveList Young Adult Book Discussion Guide NoveList/EBSCO Publishing © 2009

L Minihan September 2010