Here Comes The Mockingjay!
- Nov 11, 2014
- 5 min read
By: Omar Ateyah,
Staff Writer
In 2008, a new kind of fiction was resurrected after its popularity had begun to dissipate for about a decade and a half. The Giver by Lois Lowry was the ideal model for young adult dystopian fiction that existed until six years ago. Of course, the novel I am talking about is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It reawakened the concept of speculative fiction and what our world might become if we don’t change certain elements of our ways.
The Hunger Games continued on to be a trilogy with the two subsequent sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, finding their releases in 2009 and 2010 respectively. A brief summary of the series could be stated like so: A dystopian and futuristic North America has been divided into thirteen districts, with a ruling and dictatorial city known as the Capitol watching over them. When the districts attempted to rebel against the Capitol, the tyrannical city defeated the districts and completely destroyed District 13. And, as punishment for the uprising and to insure that in never happens again, the Capitol annually hosts The Hunger Games, in which each of the twelve districts must give up one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to fight one another in an unforgiving arena until only one remains standing. The protagonist, Katniss, from District 12, volunteers as tribute in her younger sister’s place and now must survive the Games if she is to get home, most likely having to sacrifice her humanity along the way.
The series continues with Catching Fire, and Katniss has now survived the Hunger Games with her fellow tribute, Peeta, which leads to anger from the Capitol, for the two crafty teenagers managed to outsmart the Capitol’s rule of only one victor being allowed to be crowned. Katniss’s and Peeta’s act of rebellion ultimately begins to spawn a revolution among the districts, one that may have even deadlier consequences than its predecessor.
Finally, in Mockingjay the second revolution has begun, and Katniss is the symbol and catalyst of the fighting. The districts aim to end the torments of the Capitol, the largest one being the Hunger Games itself. However, Katniss must be well designed for her role as the symbol of the revolution if Panem, the nation of the story, is to be brought to justice.
Hopefully, the above gave those who have not read the story a fair idea of what it’s about without giving too much away! Now, as of November 21, 2014, Part One of the final Mockingjay movie, based on the books, is to hit theaters, creating an uproar of excitement.
Now, here’s the trailer for the film:
This movie collects all the characters from the first two movies, and it also adds a few new ones, whose roles are sure to thrill! This movie contains Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, Donald Sutherland as President Snow, Julianne Moore as President Coin, Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair, as well as many more.
The Hunger Games narrative generates many important ideals concerning war, rebellion, and justice. Naturally, one can see that forcing teenagers to battle each other is cruel and obscene, and even worse is the vulgarity of taking enjoyment in such a feat, as the members of the Capitol do. At this point, a rebellion would not only be necessary, but if it were not to be undertaken, the ones who stand by would be in the midst of cowardice and committing injustice themselves. This is so, because allowing injustice to take place right outside your front door is being a proponent of the injustice; in such cases there is no happy medium; you are either a part of the solution or a large fraction of the problem.
For the past several years, the world has seen many dystopian stories such as Divergent by Veronica Roth and The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Something I couldn’t help but notice in all these novels, including The Hunger Games, is that division among groups of people is omnipresent. For example, in Divergent the residents of the war torn Chicago are divided into five factions, distinguished by personality types and traits. In The Maze Runner, the Gladers are separated from the rest of society, locked in the small civilization that their innocent and young minds could provide them with. And in The Hunger Games, North America is divided into twelve distinct districts that are pitted against each other in the vilest way, creating great tension between them.
Maybe there’s a single unanimous message behind all these stories; disunity will cause downfall. These authors may be trying to communicate that if people do not begin to view each other as one, nations and once civilized areas will fall into the hands of anarchy and savagery. Hasn’t the concept of disunity caused major conflicts in past eras before our time?
Upon the European discovery of America, weren’t the natives to these continents treated like slaves and animals, inferior to the omnipotent and gold-picking Europeans? The Columbian Exchange followed and it extrapolated upon the aforementioned darkness; Africans were napped from their homes and shipped to the Americas to work like slaves. Now, how does this all connect? The point is that one group of people, the Europeans, viewed another group of people, the Native Americans and the Africans, as inferior. The feeling of superiority spawns schisms and inequality among people, which brings about disunity. And, perhaps, this initial inequality due to artificial qualities brought about racism towards Africans-Americans in the United States; one dawn of disunity lead to another and the process never really ended.
So, basically, the authors of these tales did not concoct ridiculous tales of alien concepts completely new to the human species; instead they built upon the past and, quite shamefully, the present. The problem with readers today is that they fail to notice the dark reality behind dystopian fiction and forget how “Hunger Games like” our world is today. If the torments of the “Capitol” are not striking you personally, they are certainly hitting many of your neighbor inhabitants on this planet.
However, while the Hunger Games obviously does take an oppositional stand towards violence, the novels have had their share of challengers. Many believe that the Hunger Games contains far too much violence and younger readers, as well as puerile viewers, will not be able to see the deeper messages of anti-violence that lie in its midst. These people are mostly concerned parents who are worried about dangerous ideals entering their children’s mind. Personally, I applaud these people for attempting to protect their children; naturally The Hunger Games is not suitable for younger children under the age of twelve. However, it always comes down to the maturity of each individual and how much that young person could avoid being desensitized to wrong messages due to misunderstandings; of course this is harder for young children to achieve.
So, do you think that the Hunger Games story often delves too deep into violence for it to be appropriate for young people? Do you think that the ultimate contemporary dystopian message is of disunity? Also, name some instances of inequality and disunity in the past and present. Let all this happen in the comments below!
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