Similarities Between 1984 And The Hunger Games

The novel, 1984, can be most closely compared with the popular book and movie series, The Hunger Games. Overt comparisons between the two novels include their futuristic approach and the dystopian societies that emerged after periods of war. Additionally, both novels highlight poverty as a highly effective method of control. Building on that method of control, both novels have a strict hierarchy of society used to control the masses. However, the most interesting comparisons are more subtle. Both authors use children in unique ways to maintain control on the population. Skilled readers will also discern that both authors use hope as a means of control; however, it has differing results.
Both novels detail the use of children to force conformity. 1984, introduces the reader to junior spies. Junior spies are a corps made up of children that report to the

Winston, discouraged by the oppression, sees hope of a better world through the actions of the Brotherhood. A small encouragement of common hope allows Winston to down his guard and reveals his rebellious leanings to O’Brien. However, unlike hope in
The Hunger Games which unified people, hope in 1984 allowed for further control and persecution. Hope was dangled as a lure to identify those disloyal to the government and to extinguish the movement. In the case of Panem, from The Hunger Games, they used hope to rise up as one and unify the districts to overthrow the oppressive government. Conversely, Winston’s hope was twisted and broken by Big Brother. His fight was lost.
Both novels raise interesting, if extreme, scenarios surrounding the dangers of governmental control. Despite the large gap in time between their publishing, they share many obvious similarities in their interpretation of futuristic dystopian societies. However, the subtle similarities of the use of children and hope to control population is