hunger for good

i mentioned in yesterday's post about pulling an all-nighter to finish the hunger games trilogy.  i hadn't been this intense about a series since twilight, and trust me, that's saying alot!

to be honest, i had my reservations about the hunger games.  i had heard some buzz awhile ago, but the premise sounded eerily similar to a japanese movie i watched (that was highly recommended by my crazy cousin which was probably a blatant warning), called 'battle royale.'  i found that movie disturbing and needlessly violent.  it bugged me so long afterward that despite all the recommendations and news i heard about 'the hunger games,' i banned it from my list.  i wanted nothing to do with it.

but i got over my fear and decided to be open.  it's not fair to swear something off by appearances alone, right?  so after reading the hunger games and only seeing 'battle royale' as a film adaptation, i will say this.  i think that overall they are different, but touch upon the same ideals, ask the same questions.  what would you do if you were rounded up and asked to kill for entertainment?  could you do it, knowing there could only be a sole survivor?

this is what the hunger games asks.  in a futuristic totalitarian country known as panem (which was once north america), the capitol forces the annual hunger games as a reminder of their power.  there are 12 districts that make up panem, and each year a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 are pulled from a lottery to represent their district in a fight to the death on live TV.  katniss, the story's heroine, steps in to take her younger sister prim's place who was pulled as their district's "tribute."  already a born-fighter and survivor since her father was killed as a child, she is a fierce competitor, but it isn't long before she wrestles with whether or not she can dispose of the boy in her own district.  she is constantly faced with that question of morality.

this theme carries throughout the series and you find katniss's innate compassion and ferocious determination to protect those she loves outweighing even her own will to survive.  you start to see what she would sacrifice for others and are amazed by her undeniable spirit, the lengths she would go to to ensure a better future for her family.  you watch her character grow and change, witness her vulnerability not only from physical battle scars but from the government wearing her down, and are reminded by her bravery.  and before she even realizes it, her defiance paints her as the face of a rebellion, whether she likes it or not, even if she has not completely understood her own feelings about the world she lives in.

i've heard from a couple of friends who read the books that they did not like the ending.  i had a different reaction; i felt that there was no other way the author could have concluded the story, after all the hardship and suffering the characters had gone through.  and although i felt that the main characters did find their version of happiness by the last book, it was at the expense of much pain and loss.  there couldn't have been a happy, fluffy ending.  this was reality.

and reality asks the hard questions.  it's probably why i loved these books.  they make you think, they make you question.  they give you a story that does not leave you.