Essay On The Hunger Games: A Modern Day Odyssey

The Book and Movie, The Hunger Games, is an allusion to The story of Theseus and the Minotaur from Greek Mythology. The story goes that Minos, the king of Crete, once sent his only son on a visit to Athens, and he was sent by the Athenian king to fight a bull. When the boy died from the fight, the angry Minos captured Athens and declared that he would destroy it unless they completed his bizarre demand: once every nine years, the Athenians had to send a tribute of seven maidens and seven youths, who would then be forced to confront the Minotaur, who would devour them. This directly parallels the story of The Hunger Games. This rewritten version of an old Greek legend shows a theme of how history can repeat itself.

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is a suspenseful and frightening story about a 16 year old girl, Katniss everdeen who is born into a small village called District 12. The capitol, which controls the districts hosts an annual Hunger Games each and every year. Two tributes, a boy and a girl from each district are chosen between the ages of 12-18 to compete against 22 other tributes, but only one can win. Katniss is not chosen, but her younger sister Prim is chosen at only 12 years old. Katniss volunteers in Prim 's place and is now in the hunger games. The boy tribute from district 12 is a son of a baker, Peeta Mellark. They are taken to the capitol and are preparing to spend three horrifying weeks inside of the arena where life or death is their

In the Hunger Games series, a dystopian future is set up. The government of Panem, The Capitol, holds the wealth of Panem giving it the power to control all districts. In order to enforce this theory, they created the Hunger Games. They suppressed the rights of the citizen’s of Panem and selected their children in order to fight each other do death for survival. These games were created to scare the people and show them who was in charge. While these dystopian societies are going on, there are also utopian societies that we can see in our dreams. These societies are filled with what we think makes them perfect. For example, the utopian universe that can be brought to mind could be free of poverty, homelessness, war, racism ,etc. But, if we deeply think about it, if these problems did

Responsibility is key to survival in The Hunger Games because you must be responsible and careful before making a decision that depends on your life. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” (Winston Churchill) In The Hunger Games, two tributes, one male and one female under the age of eighteen, must leave their district to go and compete in The Hunger Games. While in the games all twenty-four tributes must fight to the death to entertain their Capital city. Normally there is only one winner but in this book there are two winners. In Suzanne Collins novel, The Hunger Games, the overarching theme is that responsibility is key to survival as demonstrated by the books main character, Katniss Everdeen, and how she takes care of her mother and younger sister, hunts for her own food, and trades for food and goods around her district.

The book is surrounded by Odysseus coming back home. The characters that describes is Cleverness, bravery, intelligence, skill, and strength. he is a character who plays a highly important role in people 's life. It has been ten years since Odysseus has returned to his homeland. Throughout his journey Odyssey keeps his goal in mind getting back home to his son and his wife. In this book Odysseus has a very bad luck, he gets easily distracted through the path to home. Odysseus biggest enemy is his temptation it always distract him from going home and stay at the goddess house. The goddess who traps him in the mind web, but he shows his bravery fighting, showed cleverness by getting out of the situation. Odysseus wife Penelope is clever and

Theme #1- No matter what tyrannical environment you live in, your identity can never be changed

The theme of the dystopian novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is survival. Katniss Everdeen is the epitome of this theme; her disposition luckily possesses all of the attributes needed to survive. Katniss displays the theme of survival because she is resourceful, has integrity, and has perseverance.

The Hunger Games trilogy revolves around universal dystopian themes such as :oppression, rebellion, class tension as well as appearance vs. reality ," Collins creates the world that on one hand seems quite improbable and extreme, but on the other, vividly reflects some specific issues in a real world, like social inequalities, ignorance and passivity of the people" (Macanić 7).

The Odyssey is a fantastic story full of interesting characters, conflicts, and theme. The Odyssey was written by Homer who was a blind poet. It was written in the 8th century B.C during a time of Greek god worship. With intricate characters, exciting conflicts, and an impressive theme the Odyssey is an amazing book for anyone.

Even though The Hunger Games and Lizzie Bright and The Buckminster Boy are very different they both share a common theme. In the Hunger Games, the main character, Katniss volunteers in the reaping for her sister and has to fight to go back home! Her emotions and passion to keep Peeta alive also saves them both. Lizzie Bright and The Buckminster Boy shows that even with sin and punishment, the main characters, Lizzie and Turner will do anything to be together. Even after Malaga is evicted Turner is dedicated to see Lizzie at the insane asylum. Overall the books both present the theme that what you love is worth fighting for.

A major theme that I think is important to the text is perseverance and loyalty. From him and his men getting attacked by Cicones, the Lotus-eaters captures and locks them up, and Polyphemus imprisons Odysseus and his men; Odysseus preservers. Another troublesome moment is between Calypso and Odysseus. While Calypso is trying to seduce him, he remains loyal and preserves through temptation as “he slept with her at night in her cavern, an unwilling lover mated to her eager embrace.”(Book 5, pg. 388). Calypso even shows loyalty to Odysseus in the end by setting him free against Zeus's will; “I’ll stock it with fresh water, food, and red wine- hearty provisions that will stave off hunger- and I’ll clothe you well…” (Book 5, pg. 389) she said.

Even when the Capitol is so inhumane Katniss wants to still be true to her values and ideas Rue was somebody's daughter, friend and she had a community of people which loved and the Capitol reinforces their lack of humanity, compassion and respect when she dies. Collins wants us to understand that wants to understand that one person's inhumane act doesn’t just affect one person, it affects a whole community.

Both of the “Games” take place in remote areas. The island in The Most Dangerous Game is far off from the main land and there are rough ocean currents which prevents most boats from trying to pass through nearby (Connell). In The Hunger Games the tributes are sent to a futuristic game arena with an invisible digital fence surrounding the whole arena, preventing anything or one from leaving or entering (Ross). Another similarity between the two is that in both games the contestants are civilized to play. Before telling Rainsford about the game, General Zaroff treated him to a friendly dinner (Connell). Also, on the way to the capital in the train, Katniss and the second tribute from District 12, Peeta, are given all sorts of food that they were never allowed beforehand (Ross). The last similarity between them is that there is only allowed to be one winner. General Zaroff is “fed to the dogs” at the end of the story, leaving Rainsford as the survivor (Connell). The rules of The Hunger Games state that there shall be but one victor each year, Katniss and Peeta ended up outsmarting the system in which the capital would have to take two victors or have no survivors, allowing both of them to live (Ross). Obviously, there are many similarities between The Most Dangerous Game and The Hunger

After the loss of her father in a coal mine explosion, she has to single-handedly care for her mother and sister. Through the hardships she faces, she transforms to a rebellious and hard-willed girl, that uses those qualities to fight the Capitol. Her qualities allow for her to become that symbol of hope because she is adamant about standing for what is just, and nothing will deter her from her chosen path. After many struggled against the Capitol and failed, Katniss shines like a beacon of light that attracts followers to reach the final destination. The determination and stubbornness shown by Katniss can be directly paralleled to Jack from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and his uniquely individual thoughts. He is not fazed by what others think, and continues to support what he understands to be correct. He eventually splits away from the rest of the group because his ideas vary distinctly from the others (Golding). The amplitude to which Katniss’s reasoning and ideology extends is astounding, but it allows for her to individualize herself and shine through as a diamond in the rough, assisting in her charisma as a

Suzanne Collins author of “The Hunger Games” designed Katniss Everdeen as the idealistic image of women in society. Her strength, skills, and self-control make her a figure of a woman perfect to match how our society wants women to be like and Suzanne wants that to stand out and make us think about it. Suzanne Collins wants to express how she thinks female should be like in everyday life and express that Katniss is much more than just a character, she is a message that is being sent to all the readers. Katniss breaks all the already established stereotypes by being able to survive, improvise and control herself in bad moments when even the toughest person would break apart.