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 2nd 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 7th 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
