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Essay On The Hunger Games: A Modern Day Odyssey

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The Hunger Games: A Modern Day Odyssey?
The Hunger Games is about a civilization that randomly selects two members from the different districts. Those two members are then forced to fight in an “arena” in which there is only one victor. In a way the Hunger Games is very similar to the Odyssey. The Odyssey begins years after the Trojan War has ended and Odysseus has not returned home. He gets into some trouble with the god Poseidon and the goddess Calypso. In both stories, Katniss and Odysseus use their heads before they use their weapons. It is in this way that they survive. Also, in both, the main character just wants nostos (the desire to return home to their loved ones). Katniss wants to return home to Primrose, and Odysseus wants to return …show more content…

Again, this is to get the attention of all of those who oppose them. Also, Katniss is destined to kill the other 23 players, and Odysseus is destined to kill 108 suitors. There are several other characters in the Hunger Games that relate to

the characters in the Odyssey, for example, Primrose Everdeen could be considered Penelope or
Telemachus, Peeta could be Calypso, but Katniss and Odysseus are the main characters that we focus on.
The Hunger Games is considered a modernized version because it involves advances in technology. The Trojan War was a realistic battle in a realistic place, while the hunger games was a forced battle in a computerized arena. Odysseus had to face creatures and circumstances from the power of the gods/goddesses and sorcerers/sorceresses. Katniss was constantly bombarded with other competitors, and creatures made up and controlled by the game makers.
The Hunger Games is characterized in the action/adventure genre. Expectations effect the way we view action/adventure movies. We expect fighting scenes, anticipation, for the
“hero” to win and so on. Odysseus has many of these traits, so we would expect any form of adaptation from it would also envision just as much of these

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