Key themes
- Spectacle, reality television and the ethics of watching
- Survival versus complicity in a system built on exploitation
- How revolution begins in a single act of refusal
About this book
A girl volunteers for a televised fight to the death to save her sister; a propulsive, sharp dystopian thriller.
Published in 2008, The Hunger Games became one of the bestselling YA novels ever written and sparked a wave of dystopian fiction aimed at young adults. Collins drew on both Greek mythology and reality television for her central conceit.
Discussion questions
- The Capitol forces children to kill each other and broadcasts it as entertainment. What is Collins saying about our own relationship to televised violence and suffering — and does the analogy feel pointed or heavy-handed to you?
- Katniss's defining act — the berries — is simultaneously a personal choice and a political act. How does Collins show the relationship between individual resistance and systemic change?
- Katniss is a complicated protagonist — not naturally heroic, motivated partly by love for her sister rather than political conviction. How does this ambiguity serve the novel's themes?
- The Capitol is an extreme version of a society that values spectacle and comfort over justice. Which specific aspects of the Capitol's world feel closest to your own?
- The novel is told entirely in present tense, first person. What does this intimacy create — and what does it prevent the novel from showing?
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