the hunger games book essay

The Hunger Games

By suzanne collins.

'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins captures the dangers of totalitarian regimes through the eyes of the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen.

About the Book

Written by Neesha Thunga K

B.A. in English Literature, and M.A. in English Language and Literature.

It has a strong female protagonist who acts as the catalyst for several events in the book. The main characters are well-drawn out and the world-building is excellent. The tone of the novel reflects its gruesome contents , making The Hunger Games one of the best Young Adult novels released in recent times.

Terrors of a Totalitarian Regime

The minute we start reading The Hunger Games , it becomes clear that we are no longer dealing with the world as we know it today. We enter the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem where the autocratic President Snow has taken control, and there is no freedom anymore – merely the illusion of it remains.

This is revealed to us at the beginning when we are introduced to the history of Panem by the Mayor of District 12 during the reaping . A great amount of world-building occurs here, as we are provided information regarding the 13 districts , their rebellion, their punishment, and subsequently, the birth of the Hunger Games.

Throughout The Hunger Games , we are shown the callous nature of those at The Capitol who care for nothing other than their luxury and comfort – and of course, the suffering of those at the districts . Watching the tributes fight amongst themselves to the death every single year is what they live for, and what provides flavor and excitement in their superficial and heartless lives. 

President Snow appears benevolent but is actually ruthless. He will stop at nothing to maintain control. Everything he does is aimed at expressing dominance, to remind the people in the districts that the Capitol always wins. Most people in the districts have either accepted their fate or have resigned themselves to a life of misery. Those in the wealthier districts have deluded themselves into thinking that they are the Capitol’s favorite, which gives cause for tension throughout the novel. 

All of this showcases a totalitarian regime, but one of the major drawbacks of the novel is the fact that it does not go into detail. It is written in a matter-of-fact and superficial manner which does not quite capture the gravity of the content. Nevertheless, it achieves the kind of world-building that is required for the readers to understand the plot, and sets the foundation for the sequels well.

The Spark Lit by Katniss Everdeen

The entire story is narrated by the 16-year-old protagonist, Katniss Everdeen . As such, the novel is in the first-person point of view – something which allows us to experience the horrors of the Hunger Games first-hand.

We are privy only to those things that are related to Katniss, and as a teenager who has had to take on the role of primary provider early in life, there is not much on her mind other than keeping her family alive.

As such, the novel is more about Katniss and her thoughts, feelings, and actions per se than it is about the Hunger Games themselves. We understand the Games from her unique perspective – one that is disgusted by the Capitol and laced with sarcasm and irony. 

However, this is not how others in the novel treat the Hunger Games. For instance, the Career tributes have made it their life’s mission to excel at the hideous Games concocted by the Capitol, while those at the Capitol itself revel in the mass killings that take place.

On the contrary, Katniss’s fury at the injustice of the Games grows steadily (and subconsciously) until it ends with her “trick” with the berries. Although Katniss’s only hope behind consuming the berries was to be left alive with Peeta, the very fact that she thought of killing herself is a mark of her awareness, as well as her subtle forms of rebellion.

Katniss undergoes a remarkable change in the short period it takes to complete the Hunger Games, and she transforms from someone who cares only about her family to someone who is deeply affected by the injustice of the Capitol. There is even a point when she thinks of the death of a tribute as “murder.” She reflects on the word the minute it crosses her mind, ultimately concluding that it is a fitting word to use in the situation.

Katniss has a fire within her that is longing to burst forth. Coincidentally, she becomes the “Girl on Fire” with the help of Cinna ’s creations but the references to fire do not stop there. Katniss seems to spark a fire that spreads throughout the nation of Panem with everything she does. The spark she ignites provides an unpleasant jolt to the people of the Capitol, while it acts as a beacon of hope to those in the districts. Soon, Katniss becomes the person who everyone in Panem admires and looks up to, whether she wants them to or not.

Supporting Characters

The plot of The Hunger Games is brilliantly set forth and moves at a breathtakingly quick speed. This is more than enough to sustain the reader’s interest till the end. However, the novel is a little lacking in terms of characters. No character other than Katniss is fully developed, other than through the thoughts and feelings that Katniss has about them.

You might think that her relationships are better explained but this is not the case either. We do not really know much about her relationships with her sister, Prim, who is the very reason for all of the events in the novel. We know that Katniss loves Prim and would sacrifice almost everything for her, including herself, but we do not fully understand why.

Similarly, the other characters in the novel are not provided space for their own development. This is the case for Peeta Mellark , Katniss’s co-tribute and love interest as well as President Snow, the main antagonist of the novel.

All of this could be attributed to the fact that The Hunger Games caters to a younger audience, i.e., young adults, but the novel is still missing some crucial character development.

The Final Pages of The Hunger Games

The concluding pages of the novel credit Suzanne Collins’ ability to hook the reader in. She introduces several twists in the novel, with the final one taking everyone by surprise. The reader is taken on a rollercoaster, where they are given hope (much like the characters themselves) that both Katniss and Peeta would survive, and subsequently given to despair as that hope is snatched away by the Gamemakers .

Ultimately, however, Katniss and Peeta end up surviving, and they come back home. The concluding pages also set the foundation for the sequel, which is based on the Capitol’s fury at Katniss’s rebellion. Lastly, we are left with the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale, which takes shape in the next novel, Catching Fire .

Thus, the last pages of the novel act as a spark, much like Katniss herself, for the trilogy of The Hunger Games as a whole.

Did they kill Cinna?

Cinna remains alive by the end of The Hunger Games book 1. However, due to his transgressions in Book 2, where he creates a deceptive Mockingjay outfit for Katniss, he is tortured and killed.

Is Cinna in love with Katniss?

No, Cinna is not in love with Katniss. As her stylist, it is Cinna’s job to make Katniss look appealing to the public. He sees Katniss naked many times, but he looks at her body only professionally (to assess the outfits she needs to wear) and never romantically.

Who is Haymitch to Katniss?

Haymitch is Katniss’s mentor in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games . He is an alcoholic who drowns his sorrows in drink, but comes to care for Katniss very deeply. He tries his best to keep Katniss alive both times she’s in the arena .

Did Katniss ever love Gale?

Katniss does love Gale, but only as a friend. Though Gale confesses that he loves her, Katniss never viewed him as a romantic partner. She is closer to him than anyone else because of their hunting and poaching days, until she forms a bond with Peeta.

The Hunger Games Review: A True Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

• Writing Style
• Lasting Effect on the Reader

The Hunger Games review

The Hunger Games is a highly memorable young adult dystopian fiction. It is one of a kind and deals with several important themes that are relevant even in our world. The plot and pace of the novel are praiseworthy. It is commendable in terms of world-building and leaves an impression on the reader in an unsettling and uncanny manner. However, character development is weak and superficial.

• Incredible plot and setting
• Relevant despite being unsettling
• Good world-building
• Provides an immersive experience through the use of a first-person point of view
• Characters other than the protagonist are not well-developed
• Lazy writing at times
• Falls prey to the clichéd love triangle

About Neesha Thunga K

Neesha, born to a family of avid readers, has devoted several years to teaching English and writing for various organizations, making an impact on the literary community.

Cite This Page

K, NeeshaThunga " The Hunger Games Review ⭐ " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/suzanne-collins/the-hunger-games/review/ . Accessed 1 April 2024.

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The Hunger Games

By suzanne collins.

• The Hunger Games Summary

The Hunger Games details the adventure of Katniss Everdeen , who is forced to engage in a fight-to-the-death tournament against other children. The novel takes place in Panem, a dystopic country built on what was once North America. In a world of limited resources, the despotic government run by the Capitol keeps its citizens in line by separating them into Districts and reinforcing severe class separations. But their strongest tool to promote disunion and to discourage rebellion is the Hunger Games: a yearly event where two tributes from each district are pitted against each other for the country to watch on television.

Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister Prim in District 12, the poorest of the districts. Ever since her father's death, she has been the family provider, hunting illegally in the woods outside the district with her friend Gale. The novel begins on the day of the "reaping," when each District must select two tributes, one male and one female, to represent them in the Hunger Games. When Prim is selected as the female tribute, Katniss offers herself as volunteer and is allowed to serve as tribute alongside Peeta, a middle class boy from the district.

The remainder of Part One of the novel follows the children as they are both trained for the brutal games and groomed to portray a certain image for the audience. She forces herself into a stoic determination to win, a philosophy made difficult by the kindly Peeta. The relationship is made even more fraught when Peeta confesses during a live interview that he has a crush on Katniss. Though she fears making emotional connections that could compromise her desire to win, she agrees to portray the image of a unified front, an idea proposed by their sponsor Haymitch.

The Games are held in an arena in a forested area. When they begin, Katniss rushes away from the excitement of the initial bloodbath and uses her hunting/survival skills to develop a strategy. She sleeps in trees and hunts game. Each night, faces of the dead are broadcast into the sky. As she stays hidden, she learns that Peeta has allied himself with the "Career Tributes," those tributes from the richer districts who train their entire lives for the Games.

Meanwhile, the Gamemakers , those who design the Games, continue to manipulate the surroundings in order to keep the Games entertaining. After a severe burn following a firestorm, Katniss is trapped in a tree above the Careers. That night, she makes contact with Rue , the youngest tribute, who Katniss associates with Prim. Rue is up a nearby tree and suggests she defeat the Careers by dropping a wasp nest on them. She does so, in the process getting stung herself but also scattering the Careers and gaining for herself a bow, her strongest weapon. The wasp stings produce hallucinations, which slow her down and almost cost her her life, until Peeta helps her to escape. She is understandably confused.

Katniss and Rue form an alliance and make a plan to destroy the supplies that are keeping the Careers powerful. Rue sets fires to distract them while Katniss pieces together that they are protecting their supplies with landmines reappropriated from a Gamemaker design. When she uses the mines to explode the supplies, she is blown backwards and knocked out of commission for a few days. She returns just in time to see Rue killed by another tribute, who then quickly becomes Katniss's first kill. As a small act of rebellion against the Capitol, which expects the tributes to dehumanize one another, Katniss sings to Rue and decorates her corpse with flowers before the body is fetched by the Capitol.

The Gamemakers announce that the rules have changed, and that the two tributes from a district can serve as co-victors. She then finds Peeta, who was cut badly after helping Katniss escape the Careers. She does her best to help him recover, but it isn't until Haymitch sends her a gift following a kiss she shares with him that she understands that playing up the romance angle could pay off.

They spend days growing closer in a cave, but Katniss lacks the skill to cure Peeta's wound. When the Gamemakers announce that a "feast" will be held to draw the tributes together for crucial supplies, she tricks Peeta and heads to the feast. In trying to get her gift, which she assumes is anti-infection medicine for Peeta, she is almost killed by a Career, but saved by the other tribute from Rue's district. Having heard of Katniss's kindness towards Rue, the tribute lets her live.

The medicine cures Peeta, and they spend more time growing closer in the cave. Once the Gamemakers dry up their water supplies, they prepare themselves and head out to face Cato , the only other surviving tribute. But their main challenge turns out not to be Cato, but several wolf-man creatures unleashed by the Gamemakers, creatures reanimated from the corpses of dead tributes. Katniss and Peeta escape by climbing to higher ground, while the other tribute falls and is tortured by the creatures. Finally, Katniss kills the tribute with her arrow out of mercy.

They have won the Games, but the Gamemakers rescind the rule about dual victors. Peeta and Katniss threaten to commit dual suicide, which would ruin the Games, and they are hence awarded a dual victory.

They are fetched by the Capitol representatives, and separated for a long period of recovery. When they are brought out to the audience again, Haymitch warns Katniss that she needs to overplay the lovers angle as a defense for her threat to commit suicide, which the Capitol considers an act of rebellion. Over the period of fanfare that follows, she takes his advice, which makes Peeta, who actually does love her, very happy.

When all is done, they head back to District 12, and Katniss lets slip along the way that her affection was always for the cameras. Though not the entire truth, she is torn between her old identity as a poor hunter, and the more complex one she shaped through the Games. Peeta is heartbroken, but understands they must maintain an image as they prepare to present themselves to their district.

The Hunger Games Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Hunger Games is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

2. Describe Katniss's relationships with Gale, with Prim,and with het mothef. How do those relationships define her personality? Wny does she say about Peeta,"I feellike I owe him something, and I hate owing people"? How does her ew encounter with Peetaa

Katniss and Gale are best friends. They are not romantically involved, but they do share a deep connection because of the way they've each taken over as provider for their families. They trust each other implicitly.

Since her father's death,...

Where is Katniss at the begening of chapter 1?why?

Instead of waking her family, Katniss heads out to hunt, introducing her reader to her surroundings as she does.

When a tribute dies, why does the hovercraft take the body away, and why does a cannon go off and why does the sky show the tributes and their deaths? Why???

One of the games had an issue with cannibalism. Hovercrafts are dispatched to remove the bodies as quickly as possible and make sure there is never a reoccurrence of this type of savagery.

Study Guide for The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games study guide contains a biography of Suzanne Collins, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Hunger Games
• Character List

Essays for The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

• The Danger of Ritual and Tradition in "The Hunger Games" and “The Lottery”
• Feminist Studies of Experience in The Hunger Games
• Defining and Defying Female Stereotypes: A Comparison of Charlotte Temple and Katniss Everdeen
• New Social Order
• Trust in the Hunger Games

Lesson Plan for The Hunger Games

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Hunger Games
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Hunger Games Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Hunger Games

• Introduction

The Hunger Games

89 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Introduction

Before Reading

Reading Context

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

After Reading

Discussion/Analysis Prompt

Essay Questions

Exam Questions

Exam Answer Key

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

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Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

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1. In Panem, power operates in different ways.

• Who has the most power in the novel? ( topic sentence )
• Define and explain what makes that person or group the most powerful. Use evidence from the novel to support your analysis.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how this example of power fits or does not fit with what you believe to be right.

2. Katniss does a lot of pretending to survive the games.

• Is Katniss’s deception justified? ( topic sentence )
• Explain how justified Katniss’s pretending is, using evidence and reasoning to prove your argument.
• In your concluding sentences, explain if and when lying is defensible in the Hunger Games and in Panem generally.

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54 Hunger Games Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best hunger games topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ most interesting hunger games topics to write about, 📌 good essay topics on hunger games.

• Class Inequality in “The Hunger Games” The beliefs and norms of the people in Panem are centred on the self-interest; they are obsessed to acquire the comfort and lifestyle of the affluent people.
• Capitol and District 12 in “The Hunger Games” by Collins The primary objective of The Hunger Games is to provide entertainment for the residents of the Capitol and to establish their superiority over the people living in the districts. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Suzanne Collins: Inequality and Meritocracy in “The Hunger Games” The intense training depicts the importance of reward to the tributes. Further, the society is in touch with the preparedness of their tributes via media.
• The Hunger Games by Gary Ross – Film Study In the country, children between the ages of twelve and eighteen years are required to participate in The Hunger Games. In one of the districts, Katniss’ sister is chosen to represent the region in the […]
• The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen’s Character The fact that her mother could not cope with the loss made Katniss to take the role of the head of the household.
• The Hunger Games Movie’s Marketing Strategies The centerpiece and the starting point of the Hunger Games marketing campaign were teaser billboards that appeared six months before the premiere. Tumblr is a social media that does not appear to the “public” and […]
• The Hunger Games: Book Versus Movie The film director, Gary Ross, presents the contents of the book in a film in concise way. This is in spite of the fact that the family relationship between Gale and Katniss is important.
• Women Objectification in Films: “The Hunger Games” and “Wonder Woman” She is bold enough to stand against the system of Hunger Games and offers herself as a candidate for the role of a tribute to shelter her sibling from the horror and the unfairness of […]
• Tradition in “The Hunger Games” Film and Jackson’s “The Lottery” The settings in both narratives are similar in many ways the village in “The Lottery” and District 12’s small town in “The Hunger Games”.
• Social Inequity in “The Hunger Games” by Collins Overall, Suzanne Collins highlights the social inequity between the residents of the twelve districts of Panem and the wealthier part of society in the Capitol, focusing on the cruelty of the so-called hunger games.
• Influence of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games The study is useful because it illustrates the importance of Harry Potter books within popular culture through the lens of improving young readers’ literacy.
• Panem’ Social Contracts: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins The people in the districts forego the freedom of speech and expression so that they can live peacefully with the Capitol.
• The Hunger Games: Time and Space in the Movie The major themes of the story is that people can sometimes get more of what they bargained for in helping someone, that the reality of the world is very perceptive and individual, and that fiction […]
• “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins Literature Analysis In the beginning it seems that the main focus of the movie and the books is the game and surviving of the players, but actually, the basis and the causes of this brutal game lay […]
• Division and Control in “The Hunger Games”
• Connecting Cultural and Historical Ideas in “The Hunger Games”
• The Struggle Between Socialization and Individualism in “The Hunger Games”
• What’s Katniss’s Greatest Strength in “The Hunger Games”
• Social Control in “The Hunger Games”: Hunger, Class Conflict, Totalitarian Regime
• Similarities Between “Divergent” and “The Hunger Games”: Accomplishing Strength to Surpass Your Weaknesses
• Conflict Theory in “The Hunger Games”: Districts Do the Dirty Jobs That Capitol Doesn’t Want to Do
• Contrast Between Gale and Peeta and How Each Helps Katniss Succeed in “The Hunger Games”
• The Influences of Ancient Civilizations on “The Hunger Games”: Story of Theseus and the Roman Games
• Katniss’s Speech in “The Hunger Games”
• Why the Capitol Makes the Population of “The Hunger Games” Complicit in the Brutality
• Definition and Resistance of Female Stereotype in Charlotte and Katniss in “The Hunger Games”
• Two Different Perceptions of Beauty in “The Hunger Games”: A Large Belly or a Lean Figure
• Symbolism in “The Hunger Games”: “The Hanging Tree” Song and Mockingjays
• General Comparison Between “The Hunger Games” and “Today”
• Allyship in “The Hunger Games”: Teamwork Can Save You From Death and Get More People to Like You
• Connecting Cultural and Historical Ideas to Panem in “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
• Survival Guide From “The Hunger Games”
• The Idea of Constant Surveillance in “The Hunger Games” and Foucault’s Concept of the Panopticon
• Events in the Past That Is Similar to “The Hunger Games”
• The Marxist Theory in “The Hunger Games”
• Katniss’s Growth in “The Hunger Games”: From “Indifferent Mask” to a Fuller Person
• Negative Influence of the Media on Society in “The Hunger Games”: Information, Independent and Freedom Are Restricted
• “The Hunger Games” All-Time Best Selling Series on Amazon
• Katniss Uses Her Moral Compass in “The Hunger Games”
• Collins’s Inspiration for “The Hunger Games”: Reality Television Programs and the Iraq War
• Breaking the Rules to Make a Difference in Society in “The Hunger Games”
• Prequel of “The Hunger Games”: “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”
• Why the BBC News Listed “The Hunger Games” on Its List of the 100 Most Influential Novels
• Similarities Between “The Hunger Games” and the “Maze Runner”
• The Main Themes in “The Hunger Games”: Friendship, Family, Freedom, and Oppression
• Director Gary Ross About “The Hunger Games”: Political Overtones, a Fantastical Setting, and the First-Person Point of View
• The Entertainment Industry and Governments as the Leading Causes of Poverty and Wealth in “The Hunger Games”
• “The Hunger Games”: The Novel That Exemplify a Totalitarian
• Real Message of “The Hunger Games”: The Ability and Desire to Survive
• The Most Dramatic Part of “The Hunger Games”: Rue’s Death
• Societal Narcissism in “The Hunger Games”: An Imaginary Place Where People Lead Dehumanized and Often Fearful Lives
• The Story of the Book “The Hunger Games”: A Post-Apocalyptic North American Mess
• “The Hunger Games” and Child Soldiers: The Sad Truth
• Comparison Between “The Hunger Games” and “Lord of the Flies”
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The Hunger Games Thesis Statements and Essay Topics

Below you will find four outstanding thesis statements / paper topics for “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins that can be used as essay starters. All four incorporate at least one of the themes found in “The Hunger Games” and are broad enough so that it will be easy to find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement. These thesis statements offer a short summary of “The Hunger Games” in terms of different elements that could be important in an essay. You are, of course, free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of  important quotes from “The Hunger Games”  on our quotes page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent essay.

Topic #1: Morality in  The Hunger Games

In the novel, there is a very clear sense of right and wrong. The Capital killing children and growing rich of the toil of the people is obviously wrong. Katniss does what she must to survive and does kill other competitors. Morality is defined as personal or cultural values, codes of conduct or social mores; it has neither a good or bad connotation on its own. For this essay argue the role that morality plays in the novel. How does Katniss’ sense of morality affect the way that she plays the game? Is there a clear representation of Good and Evil in the novel?

Topic #2: Setting in  The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games  is set in a dystopian future for North America, a world called Panem. The use of setting is used to not only give a sense of the dismal world that Katniss finds herself but also to give history into how North America became so vastly different from the world we know today. Give examples of how descriptions of the setting set the tone for the novel. What are we told about the history of Panem that gives a sense of North America’s dystopian future? A dystopia is a repressive and controlled state. In what ways is Panem a dystopia? Are there any ways that Panem is not a dystopia? Use examples from the novel to support your assertions.

Topic #3:  The Hunger Games  and Beauty

  There are two different perceptions of beauty presented in the novel, those of the people of Seam and those of the people in the Capitol. The Capitol prides the beauty that people tend to pride today, youth, a lean figure and facial beauty. Seam finds attractiveness in what shows survival and wealth, such as a large belly showing an abundance of food or old age showing strength and longevity. What do you think the novel is trying to say about today’s perceptions of beauty? Do you think the novel favors one version of beauty over the other? Use examples from the novel to support your conclusions.

Topic #4:  The Hunger Games  and Relationships

In the novel, Katniss forms strong relationships with Gale and Peeta. Gale is a symbol of strength that is born out of a lifetime in poverty. Peeta is an example of selfless kindness. Throughout the novel, Katniss finds herself confused about her feelings for both of them. What do Gale and Peeta signify for Katniss? What do they have in common with Katniss? How do Gale and Peeta shape Katniss’ participation in the games? Does the novel stress one quality or relationship over the other? Why? Use examples from the novel to support your conclusions.

Book Summary: The Hunger Games Essay

Have you ever heard the game that you need to fight for life? The game is called Hunger Games, from every districts one male and female from the age 12-18, they get picked by draw lots and you can also volunteers for somebody. After you get picked up, you go to the Capitol and fighting for life and everyone is watching you until the one survivor left. On the game, there is going to be 24 tributes from 12 districts, so this is the hunger games and the story will start.

In this story, there is a girl named Katniss and she is 16 years old, and she is from district 12. Her sister named Prim got picked, but Katniss volunteers for her, because she was 12 years old and don’t know how to hunt, also she wants to save her. There were boy named Peeta…

She also got braver and think that Hunger Games is just like hunting animals. She got less fear and got better at surviving, her mind got changed that, if she wins she will be happy with her family, because when you won the game, you get rich. Her mind got grower to think more and trying to use more brain.

She is different from Peeta that she is more braver and think deeper than him. Because she pretend to have love with Peeta and after the they kill all the tributes, there can be only 1 winners. So they eat the poison berries together and try to die together. But the game maker stop them and make them have a two winners, not one. That is how she is different and she is also good at acting the plan that she made.

The last part of the Hunger Games is Katniss and Peeta have won the game and come back to the Capitol and get healed before they go home. The people that help them were happy that they’re both alive. After the winning they interviewed and see the highlights about Katniss and Peeta killing other tributes. After few days, they came back to their home and get a new victor house and live there. After one year, they need to go to every districts and tell about…

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Book Review — Book Review: The Hunger Games

Book Review: The Hunger Games

• Categories: Book Report Book Review Literature Review

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Words: 2291 |

12 min read

Published: Dec 12, 2018

Words: 2291 | Pages: 5 | 12 min read

Works Cited

• Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
• Cunningham, S. (2011). Reading The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Franich, D. (2014). The Hunger Games: A Critical Handbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Gitlin, T. (2015). The Hunger Games and the Future of War. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Gray, R. (2015). The Hunger Games Phenomenon. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
• Jowett, L. (2014). The Media and the Making of The Hunger Games. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
• Kavadlo, J. (2012). The Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Lewis, R. (2012). Young Adult Literature and the Digital World: Textual Engagement Through Visual Literacy. New York, NY: Springer.
• Murphy, C. (2018). Young Adult Fiction and Contemporary Theory: Reading and Writing Resistance. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Peluso, M. J., & Evans, J. K. (2012). Young adult literature and adolescent identity across cultures and classrooms: Contexts for the literary lives of teens. New York, NY: Routledge.

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In Yemen, Renewed Conflict and Rising Hunger Stalk a Lean Ramadan

Airstrikes, crippling inflation and a drop in foreign aid are raising alarms about a new humanitarian crisis in the world’s poorest Arab country.

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By Saeed Al-Batati and Vivian Nereim

Saeed Al-Batati reported from Al Mukalla, Yemen, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In the years before war and hunger upended daily life in Yemen, Mohammed Abdullah Yousef used to sit down after a long day of fasting during Ramadan to a rich spread of food. His family would dine on meat, falafel, beans, savory fried pastries and occasionally store-bought crème caramel.

This year, the Islamic holy month looks different for Mr. Yousef, 52, a social studies teacher in the coastal city of Al Mukalla. He, his wife and their five children break their fast with bread, soup and vegetables. Earning the equivalent of $66 a month, he frets that his salary sometimes slips from his hands in less than two weeks, much of it to pay grocery bills.

“I’m fighting to make ends meet,” Mr. Yousef said in an interview, describing how even before Ramadan he had begun skipping meals to stretch his meager paychecks, yet could barely afford bus fare to his job at a primary school.

A decade ago, his salary covered his family’s needs and more. But conflict, poverty and hunger have overtaken much of Yemen. As rapid inflation eats away at their spending power, middle-class Yemenis like Mr. Yousef have found themselves sliding into economic collapse.

Muslims abstain from food and water between dawn and sunset in observance of Ramadan, which is meant to be a time of worship, celebratory gatherings and nightly feasts. But it has been a desperate occasion this year for many across Yemen. The country is home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, precipitated by a war that began in 2014, which experts warn may be drifting toward a deeper disaster.

After two years of relative quiet, conflict in Yemen is threatening to ramp up again. The Iran-backed Houthi militia that controls much of the country’s north is attacking ships in the Red Sea, calling it a campaign to pressure Israel over its bombardment of Gaza. In response, a U.S.-backed coalition is carrying out airstrikes on Yemen — all of which is increasing the insurance cost of shipping goods to the country, which is dependent on imports.

More than 18.2 million people out of the population of 35 million now require humanitarian assistance, but funding has fallen as international donors turn their attention to other crises, including the war in Ukraine and an imminent famine in Gaza .

In December, the World Food Program suspended food distribution in Houthi-controlled territories, where a vast majority of Yemenis live. The agency, which is run by the United Nations, said the decision was driven by “limited funding,” as well as disagreements with the Houthi authorities over reducing the number of people served to focus on the neediest families.

Edem Wosornu, the director of operations and advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, warned on March 14 that food insecurity and malnutrition in Yemen had surged in recent months. The progress the agency had observed over the past two years was “at the risk of unraveling,” she said.

Spring is generally a harvest season of relative plenty in Yemen, said Peter Hawkins, a UNICEF representative to Yemen. But he said he worried what would happen in the summer and the fall, when the “hunger season” arrives.

Last year, the United Nations sought $4.3 billion to pay for aid operations in Yemen and received less than half that from donors. This year, it put out a more modest plea for $2.7 billion .

“Lack of food today, tomorrow, is not a big problem,” Mr. Hawkins said. “It’s the cumulative impact that is a big problem, because that’s where destitution starts to settle in.” The bigger concern, he said, was that the international community had not yet responded to 2024 food aid needs. “And every day that they delay,” he added, “every day it will get worse.”

Yemenis like Mr. Yousef split their lives into periods before and after the war splintered their country. Before, he used to be able to afford special purchases for his family like a whole goat, and he was even able to pay for a trip to Mecca for an Islamic pilgrimage, he said.

Then, in 2014, the Houthis — an armed group with a stronghold in Yemen’s northern mountains — seized on a period of political instability to take over the country’s capital, Sana. A Saudi-led military coalition, backed by U.S. assistance and weapons, began a bombing campaign in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government. The coalition enforced a de facto naval and air blockade that restricted the flow of food and other goods into Houthi-held territory.

As the war ground on for years, hundreds of thousands of people died from violence, hunger and disease. Children starved to death — their emaciated bodies documented in stark photographs published by Western news outlets — and the potential of a widespread famine loomed.

The Saudi-led coalition eventually faced international pressure to pull back, and in 2022, a tentative truce took hold. That left the Houthis entrenched in power in the north and Yemenis in a sort of limbo — not peace, but a respite from war’s worst consequences. The country’s already fragile economy, however, was decimated.

Mr. Yousef’s salary has technically gone up by more than 50 percent since the war began, but that increase has vanished amid inflation, as the Yemeni currency becomes increasingly worthless. Dueling central banks in the north and the south of the country set different exchange rates, and the black market operates on a third. In 2014, it took about 215 Yemeni riyals to equal $1; now, where Mr. Yousef lives, it is 1,650.

Al Mukalla is in southern Yemen, nominally controlled by the internationally recognized government. In Houthi-controlled territories, thousands of state workers, including teachers, have not received salary payments in years.

As a result, deprivation is a feature of daily life. Each night, Mr. Yousef’s family crowds into one room to sleep because it is the only one with an air-conditioning unit to ease the sweltering heat. Even if he could afford another cooling unit, he said, he could not pay the electricity bill to operate it.

“We have forgone meals and stopped purchasing stuff to maintain our dignity and avoid asking others for money,” he said.

Mohammed Omer Mohammed, a grocery store owner in Al Mukalla for three decades, can see the impact in his shop as purchasing power plummets. Instead of rice, customers buy subsidized bread. He said he stopped stocking goods like Nutella and high-quality canned tuna because his customers could no longer afford them.

In the evenings, Ramadan shoppers still gather at a busy market in the city, where vendors sell hamburgers and fresh fruits. But merchants said the trade was not what it used to be. Shoppers stop to ask how much things cost, then buy nothing. Those who do buy haggle relentlessly over the price.

“Each year becomes worse than the previous one,” said Abdullah Badwood, a gold merchant, who has found that instead of buying gold, many of his customers want to sell.

This Ramadan has been particularly difficult for Hussein Saeed Awadh, 38, a father of three in Al Mukalla. He earns 55,000 Yemeni riyals a month as an Arabic teacher, a salary that is now worth less than $35. That disappears in a few days as he pays off bills, he said, so in the afternoons he has taken a second job as a street vendor.

Years ago, Mr. Awadh’s family broke their Ramadan fasts with fresh fruits, pastries and chocolates. Now for their evening meal they have coffee and dates, and — because he cannot pay for more expensive meat — they eat soup with tripe.

A whole chicken would cost more than 5,000 Yemeni riyals — a tenth of his monthly salary. A kilogram of local mangos would cost 3,000 riyals; imported oranges about 3,500. All of it is more than many Yemenis can afford. But it is not just food that is out of reach.

Recently, Mr. Awadh found that his 6-year-old daughter’s teeth had been breaking because she was not getting enough calcium. A four-pound container of powdered milk costs 14,000 riyals — an entire week of his wages as a teacher.

“The doctor prescribed medicine and told me to give her milk,” he said. “But I can’t afford it.”

Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. More about Vivian Nereim