May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

I have heard two common opinions on The Hunger Games. One states that the movie is amazing and the books are even better. The other, however, goes something like "I can't believe people find teenagers killing each other entertaining, that's disgusting". The fact is, the movie is not about teenagers killing each other. The movie is about a society that does find entertainment value in teenagers killing each other. The fact that people in our society still find this form of gladiator fighting appalling is exactly what sets us apart from the fictitious country. People also compare it to Lord of the Flies, a fight for survival on a deserted island...or was that Lost? Both became well known works in our society, not because we found entertainment in death (although there are a lot of crime shows out there that center around murder and horrific crimes but I don't hear as much hullabaloo about those...) but because they taught us things. What would you do if you were deserted on an island? Alliances form, choices are made.

Perhaps The Hunger Games is more of a warning or lesson to avoid becoming that society. Movies, and literature for that matter, are meant to challenge us and call into question social norms. You have to look beyond the face value to see the meaning.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie (I need to find movies I don't like, it seems) and it wasn't as graphic as I expected. Plus, Katniss is a badass and it does make me want to learn how to hunt just in case the apocalypse shows up in the near future. I found several parallels between our society and theirs, and if you think about it, we have a lot of reality shows where people are eliminated but obviously we would never condone a gladiator fight. In case we haven't learned from history where humans were forced to fight to the death, fiction steps in to trick us into thinking the concept is surreal and impossible. It is possible, though. The lesson is to keep it improbable.

And to end on a light note, I believe there is a parody out there entitle The Younger Games with the main character Dogny being placed in an arena where some of the challenges include a band of screaming toddlers...