The Hunger Games Trilogy - A Review from the Perspective of an Advanced Placement English Teacher.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Should you read it?  YES

Should you reread it? PROBABLY

I recently reread The Hunger Games Trilogy.  My dear friend’s daughter was reading it for her 8th grade English class, and I thought, “why not?”.  I started in October of 2020 with the presidential election well underway in an interesting year that had made so many of us pause and think.

I have a love hate relationship with works like this.  It started when I was in high school and read the short story “The Lottery” and the novel Lord of the Flies.  The trauma of reading these two works followed me into my own career as a high school teacher.  I have fallen in love with the horrifying Shirley Jackson tale only because of it’s craft, not its content. I still have not revisited Lord of the Flies.

The first time I read The Hunger Games series, I focused on the content as would any reader.  This time, however, I “AP Lit’ed it”, as we would say in my classroom.  

I will not go into all of my sleuthing, but I encourage you to investigate on your own even if you have already read the trilogy.  At least read the first book again with fresh eyes and an open mind.

Let’s start with Katniss.  A tiny bit of research will prove that the katniss plant, with arrow shaped leaves on most species, is a North American plant with white (the color of innocence) flowers. A quick look at a Latin dictionary confirms that her name is definitely craftily chosen since Sagittaria means armed with arrows.  Everdeen - deen is the Scottish variant of done.  One of the possible definitions of “done” is “doomed to failure, defeat, or death.” Is Katniss Everdeen ever doomed? All that aside, I am not enthralled with Katniss, but I am not sure our author wants us to be. I find her irritating, immature, and overly sensitive at times. Perhaps she’s an antihero? I am only satisfied with her as a truly believable character at the end of the third book.

While we are on names, let’s look at Gale Hawthorne.  Gale can mean a strong wind, or a burst of sound usually laughter. The paradoxical contrast between a devastating storm and the refreshing, pleasing activity of laughing correlates to the mixed feelings Katniss has for Gale.  I think there may be some other connections in the third book, but you can let me know your opinion later.  Hawthorn is a thorny plant in the rose family.  Enough said.

Reportedly, Suzanne Collins has said Panem is supposed to be reminiscent of Rome.  Hmmm.  Gladiators fighting to the death; if you haven’t looked into the history of the Roman Games in a while, now might be a good time for a refresher.  

My goal here is not to analyze the entire series.  My goal was to determine if the trilogy is mere pop cultural amusement.  My verdict:  there is craft here and well worth reading. I found the first two books more impactful; I had honestly forgotten the third book and the denouement, which I attribute to my overly sensitive nature and the horrifying concept of ‘hunger games’ much like my aversion to similar works as stated previously. Despite not remembering the ending the first read through, I believe it will stick this time since I was much more actively reading.

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