It's similar to others of its kind but different in how it is done. In post-apocalyptic America, the government controls the outlying districts by selecting (lottery) two children between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in what is known as the Hunger Games. Much like the Roman gladiator sports, the Games are designed to be visually exciting. As this is a future society, emphasis is placed on looks -- so each tribute is allocated a personal designer (Cinna in our case) to dress them fashionably so as to appeal to the crowds.
It gets better.
Spectators are allowed to assist the tribute they are betting on by sending them gifts -- food, medicine, etc -- during the games via air delivery. The audience has no interest in the kids who will be killed off in the first few minutes of the Games so the tributes work very hard to convince the audience to back them -- thereby upping their chances of survival.
Each killing is met with increasing excitement as it means the finalists are starting to emerge, making the stakes even higher.
In a nutshell, HG is a commentary on contemporary society (that delights equally in game shows, reality tv, televised executions, and horror -- remember when the videos of the Americans being beheaded was leaked to youtube and had more hits than ANY OTHER VIDEO EVER????) in a not-too-far-fetched setting. It reaches back to the barbarism of Roman entertainment and forward to the day when the government can capture everything we do on tv circuit.
Fucking brilliant!!!! I really hand it to that author! She took a hot topic and made it something children and adults can read.
no subject
It gets better.
Spectators are allowed to assist the tribute they are betting on by sending them gifts -- food, medicine, etc -- during the games via air delivery. The audience has no interest in the kids who will be killed off in the first few minutes of the Games so the tributes work very hard to convince the audience to back them -- thereby upping their chances of survival.
Each killing is met with increasing excitement as it means the finalists are starting to emerge, making the stakes even higher.
In a nutshell, HG is a commentary on contemporary society (that delights equally in game shows, reality tv, televised executions, and horror -- remember when the videos of the Americans being beheaded was leaked to youtube and had more hits than ANY OTHER VIDEO EVER????) in a not-too-far-fetched setting. It reaches back to the barbarism of Roman entertainment and forward to the day when the government can capture everything we do on tv circuit.
Fucking brilliant!!!! I really hand it to that author! She took a hot topic and made it something children and adults can read.