The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

          The country of Panem was built over the ruins of North America. It was made up of the Capitol and 13 Districts, but after the war and the Dark Days District Thirteen died off. Or it is so believed in the other districts… But the Capitol rules on with harshness and the Hunger Games.

          Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, the poorest district of all. They supply coal and most, if not all boys over the age of 18 work in the mines. The work is very dangerous and a lot of men have been killed, including Katniss’s father. Now she lives in a small hut with her sister Prim and her mother. With her father gone, she is her family’s main food supplier. She hunts in the woods outside the Meadow, which lies right outside of District 12. This is illegal. There is an electrical fence outside the Meadow, but it’s never charged, so Katniss knows that it’s safe to go under it. There, in the woods she meets Gale, a boy 2 years older then her who also lost his father in a mining accident. From then on, they always hunt together.

          Every year all the districts have a reaping to decide who this year’s tribute to the games will be. When Prim’s name is drawn at the reaping, Katniss runs forward to volunteer. She’ll do anything to keep her little sister safe. The boy tribute from 12 is Peeta Mallark. This is kind of hard for Katniss because once they get to the arena they will have to kill each other and Peeta and Katniss share a certain history. He once gave Katniss some bread from his bakery and took a beating from his mother to keep Katniss and her family from starving.

          The only alive victor from district 12 is the ever-drunk Haymitch. He will be Peeta and Katniss’ mentor for the games, which means that he will supposedly do everything he can to keep them alive. This includes finding sponsors for Katniss and Peeta, helping them find strategies and stuff like that. But they all know that Haymitch can only keep one of them alive, because only one tribute can survive. Katniss wants to be able to go back and keep protecting Prim, so she decides that she will try her best and her hardest to win these games without relying on Peeta, Haymitch or some questionable sponsors that she might not even have.

          Every tribute has a prep team and a stylist. This year district 12 has new ones. Of course, the new stylists always get stuck with the worst district with the worst theme (coal mining). Katniss asks Cinna if she is right. He says that he asked for district 12 because he and Portia (Peeta’s stylist) have a good idea for the costumes. Usually the tributes from district 12 either wear the mining uniforms, which are ugly, black jumpsuits that hang around the body or go naked and covered in coal dust.(In the games, naked bodies are not a big thing.) But Cinna and Portia want Peeta and Katniss to stand out. They wear black costumes, which the stylists light up on fake fire. They really stand out from the other tributes. The crowd loves them, but the other tributes are jealous and are planning to kill them first. Next, all the tributes have their private training sessions with the Gamemakers. By the time it’s Katniss’s turn all of them are sleepy and are concentrated on a roasted pig that was brought in. So Katniss shot at an apple in the pig’s mouth. Of course she didn’t miss. Katniss never misses. The Gamemakers were shocked and as her training score she got an eleven. Twelve is the highest score. Most of the Career Tributes (or just Careers) got a nine or ten. Again angry glances were shot her way. But those things were just the start. At their public interviews Peeta dropped the bomb. He was in love with Katniss. The big question was: Peeta was in love with Katniss, but was she in love with him? The way Katniss hid her eyes suggested yes to the Capitol viewers, but might of meant something different to the districts. It probably meant something else for the people who knew her personally.

I have to say that it definitely meant something else to me. It meant that her true feelings were to stay with her. It also might mean that she wasn’t even sure of her feelings toward the boy with the bread. I will be adding what I think throughout the story and also throughout my blog. Please comment if you like this or not.

Most people looked on, because this year’s tributes weren’t any different from the other tributes in the games, they were just another round of Panem et Circenses (bread and circuses). Because really those were the only needs of the people in the Capitol. The districts supplied food and they supplied tributes. Panem et Circenses. Sadly, that’s just the way it was. If you were born in the districts, work and face the reaping, if you were born in the Capitol, then enjoy the districts’ hard work and see their people die just for the fun of it.

But some of the people from the Capitol felt sorry for them because they knew that only one of them would survive, which meant that there will be no more star-crossed lovers of district 12.This gave them good sponsors. Since Katniss wasn’t sure of her feelings toward Peeta, she knew that she would have to put on a very good show to make the audience believe that they were the star-crossed lovers of district 12.

Katniss and Peeta did a very good job in the arena. But I’ve told you too much already so if you want to find out who won the seventy-forth Hunger Games then you’re going to have to read the book yourself, or tell me that you want me to write a blog on the 2^nd book of the Hunger Games.

 Which is by the way called Catching Fire, if that might give you a clue J. Oh, and if you are planning to read the book then you just might want to stop on the first one because the third is too tragic and it is seriously impossible to stop on the second book. And, yes there is a movie, so can watch that instead of reading if you’re not a reading kind of person. (The second movie is coming out in theaters across America November 22.) But I seriously, seriously …Very, very seriously suggest that you read the book before or instead of watching the movie. I am watching it right now. But before I let the Hunger Games take the screen on our Family Movie Night, I read the whole series of the Hunger Games, and cried over the last book. See – exactly why I only want you reading the first book. This book, no doubt about it is a Bookworm Promise!:). It’s a really good book, but if you asked me if I would Recommend it to children my age, then I would say no. Because I really think that it is too violent for anybody younger then 7^th grade. Which, my friends I’m pretty sure most of you are above 7th grade, which is the exact reason that I’m recommending this book. Enjoy this great piece of literature!

You don’t really have to read this if you haven’t heard of The Hunger Games before. The girl who was on fire is an analysis of The Hunger Games, which is not written by Suzanne Collins.

“Happy Hunger Games and may the odds ever be in your favor.” Phrase from The Hunger Games.

Bye, and sorry for taking your time. Don’t deny that I took your time because I know something that you probably don’t. Okay, okay, fine I’ll tell you, but it’s a secret, so don’t tell anyone else: this is the longest blog that I have ever written, bigger even then The Candymakers. You can look at The Candymakers. Here