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Schule > Englisch > Ausarbeitungen, Interpretationen und Zusammenfassungen > Inhaltsanabe zu Hunger Games von Suzanne Collins

Summary: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Contents
1 Introdution 1
2 Content of the novel 'The Hunger Games' 1
3 Characters 2
3.1 Katniss Everdeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Peeta Mellark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 Utopia and Dystopia 3
4.1 Denition of Utopia and Dystopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1.1 Utopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1.2 Dystopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Utopia and Dystopia in 'The Hunger Games' . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1 Introdution
Nowadays watching TV gets more and more lowbrowed and people amuse oneself
by laughing about pain of other people without thinking that they get hurt like
it is the case in youtube videos/movies depicting motorbike accidents.
It's sometimes terrifying what can be watched on television like 'Jungelcamp' or
'Biggest Loser', which not only have absolutely nothing to do with education,
but destroy any sense of moral or human behavior . In the worst case, an
extreme version of a reality TV show deals with a competition, where several
participants have to ght and kill each other to get out as the only surviving
person and winner of the competition. It is meant to satisfy people's urge of
merciless.
This dystopian situation is thematised in 'The Hunger Games'.
2 Content of the novel 'The Hunger Games'
The Hunger Games is the rst science-ctional novel of the Hunger Games trilogy
written by Suzanne Collins. The scene plays in the future in a dictatorship
state, called Panem, which corresponds to the territory of the former USA. The
state exists of twelve Districts and the Capitol, the seat of the government. The
Capitol is very rich, but most of the districts are starving. After sti
ing of a
revolt the Capitol implemented the Hunger Games as a yearly reminder of those
Dark Days. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve Districts will have
to provide one girl and one boy, called Tributes, to participate in the Hunger
Games. These Tributes are imprisoned in an arena, so it's like a gladiator ght
and the Tributes have to ght against each other until only one survives.
The act starts before the 74.th Hunger Games. The 12-year-old-girl Primrose
Everdeen is drawn by lot a candidate of district number 12, but her sister, Kat-
niss, wants to save her life signifying herself voluntaryly. Katniss has a lot of
skills in hunting especially in bow and arrow. Together with the male tribute
Peeta Mellark, a baker's son, they make the journey to the Capitol to prepare
for the Hunger Games. Every District gets a mentor, it is Haymitch Abernathy
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for District 12, a man who has won the Games in the past.
The Games start with the presentation of the tributes and Katniss and Peeta
surprise the mass of people with their outt, because it stands under re. Before
the Hunger Games start in the arena, the tribute have the chance to show their
skills in a demonstration. Katniss makes a risky performance and so she gets a
very good mark and so the attention increases. Peeta says that he has fallen in
love with Katniss in a TV-Event the night before the ght starts.
The Games start in the arena and in the rst hours nearly half of the tributes
are killed. But a few of the tributes form an alliance - the tributes of district 1
and 2 and Peeta - and they want to kill Katniss with the help of Peeta. Katniss
can escape and so she makes an alliance with Rue, the girl from District 11, and
they manage to destroy the food stocks. After Rue has been killed, it's Katniss
who biuries her.
The changing of the rules makes it possible that 2 tributes will be able to win
the Games, if they are from the same District, so Katniss searches Peeta, but he
is badly injured. Katniss tries to get the medicine for Peeta but she is attacked
by Clove from District 2. Thresh, the male Tribute of District 11, helps Katniss
because of the burial of Rue.
The Gamemakers sends mutations of dogs in the arena, to nish the games.
These dogs hunt Cato, Katniss and Peeta. They can save themselves by climbing
the horn of plenty (that's the sustenancecontainer) but there they have to
ght against Cato,the leader of the alliance of the beginning. Cato falls down
the horn and the mutations infest him. Katniss kills Cato with an arrow to save
Catos further sorrow. The Gamemakers reserve the rule that there could be
two winners and so Katniss gives Peeta some of the berries. In the last moment
before both eat the berries the Gamemakers reserve the reserve, to stop the
double suicide. So both are the winners of the 74.th Hunger Games.
3 Characters
3.1 Katniss Everdeen
She is the protagonist
She is a 16 year-old-girl living with her mother and her sister Primrose(Prim) in
District 12, a coal-mining district. Their father deceased in a mining explosion.
They live in poor circumstances (armlichen Verhaltnissen), because rst of all
District 12 is one of the poorer districts of Panem and as I said her father died
when she was very young and her mother fell into a deep depression, so there
is no one who can earn their money. That's why Katniss goes illegaly hunting
in the woods. Throughout her life, she becomes hunting partners and best
friends with Gale Hawthrone. She is particularly talented in bow-hunting and
setting traps but she is also good at throwing knifes. Peeta Mellark, Katniss'
fellow tribute from District 12, describes her hunting skills with bow and arrow
as excellent because she is able dispatch a wild animal with a hit in the eye
(Chapter 7 Page 89). Thus Katniss takes care of her sister and her mother and
so she shoulders the father's role. I think she is portrayed as an independent
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young women and also as erce. Katniss realy loves her sister Prim and so sche
sacries herself for the Hunger Games instead of Prim. However I think she
also has a dangerous nature (riskante Eigenart), because Haymitch Abernathy,
winner of the 50th Hunger Games and mentor of the tributes of District 12, for
instance, instructed her not to go into the ght of the beginning but she does.
Furthermore, she wants to eat poisoness berries in the end, without knowing if
her plan works. This and her volunteering can be also classied as very brave.
Katniss tries to suppress her real emotions, for example when she was hit by
the reball she didn't want to show her feelings. This is why she tries to play
very often with the cameras in order to convince the audience in the Capitol
to get some sponsors. Moreover, Katniss often thinks about new comments or
actions to make the audience happy or laugh. Here is an example: although
the girl is followed by the ally an is located in an desperate/hopeless situation,
she has time to provoke them or to make a joke, due to the fact that she thinks
it makes the audience happy how she is acting. Katniss seems to be deant
(trotzig) and provoking in lots of situations. Her decition to eat the poisonous
nightlock berries is seen by Capitol ocials and rebels in many districts as an
act of deance. The act makes Katniss a symbol of rebellion for the Districts
against the Capitol. Upon returning to District 12, Katniss becomes aware of
her dierence of feelings towards Peeta, because during the Hunger Games she
was just playing the romance with Peeta but now she seems to get more and
more interested in Peeta. The girl is nicknamed Catnip and the girl on re.
3.2 Peeta Mellark
He is 16 years old and the baker's son living in District 12. The boy is the male
Tribute from District 12. He is quite charismatic, which helps him during the
Games. He states in an interview after the Reaping that he has been in love with
Katniss since the rst day he saw her. Though Peeta is sincere, Katniss does not
truly return Peeta's aections; she initially believes that he is simply trying to
curry favor with the public and with the sponsors. His skills are throwing heavy
things and he is very good in camou
aging because after he got wounded by
Cato he hides himself at the stream and no one can nd him. Peeta also trusts
Katniss in the end because Peeta and Katniss threaten suicide with nightlock
berries, without knowing if the Gamemakers declare both of them victors. In
the end Peeta loses his left leg forcing him to use a prosthetic leg. The boy is
nicknamed Lover Boy by the Careers because of his love for Katniss.
4 Utopia and Dystopia
4.1 Denition of Utopia and Dystopia
4.1.1 Utopia
The noun Utopia refers to human eorts to create a perfect society that does
not exist (yet).
Ideas which could radically change our world for better but are very dicult or
impossible to realize are often labelled as utopian.
(Origin of the word Utopia ) ?
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So the main characteristics are:
it's a ideal future
the world is free from con
ict(s)
and often it is the technology has saved us from pollution, environmental
degradation and resource problems
at least people are loving to each other
4.1.2 Dystopia
A dystopia, also called anti-utopia or cacotopia, is the antithesis of the utopian
society. It is usually characterized by totalitarian or authoritarian form of government
or some other kind of oppressive control.
So here are the main characteristics:
it's a negative future
it's post-aptocalyptic - in which the presented society lives in ruins
it's also a future with an extreme repressive society
the individual has lost many rights and freedoms
it's a world of ecological destruction
it means that the natural world has been polluted and so the whole society
has collapsed
4.2 Utopia and Dystopia in 'The Hunger Games'
You can recognize immediately that it is an Dystopian Story, BUT at the beginning
there is also an Utopian world: The Capitol, the ruling city of Panem, and
maybe the Districts 1 and 2. There is a distored picture of an perfect world with
particular people, clothes and hairs. The Buildings are also awesome how it is
explained at the page 59. This is why the Utopian world is surrounded by the
Dystopian World, because only the people of the capitol live in wealth and most
of the twelve Districts have to starve. You can also say that the society lives in
ruins especially in District 12, because most of the country was destroyed due
to the uprising districts in the "past". The individuals have lost many rights
and freedoms after the failed rebellion especially the young generation has lost
the right to live because if they are drawn by lot on the Reaping they have to
ght like gladiators in an arena to the death.
This is why the Capitol is also an dystopian world. It is a totalitarian form of
government as well you can realize this when Haymitch talks to Katniss what
she has to say about the decision eating the berries, because they are in real
danger now.
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