You'll Like What I Tell You to Like: The Hunger Games

I just finished The Hunger Games.

As much as I don’t like to buy into trends, sometimes things are popular with good reason. Like legwarmers, and Justin Bieber. And even though not jumping on the bandwagon is all the rage (see the irony?) some trends must be indulged. Sometimes popular books and movies deserve the attention they receive. 

The Hunger Games takes place in a sinister dystopian future. Each year teenagers are selected to participate in a brutal, Darwinian fight to the death. It’s like Extreme Survivor—there’s even a Jeff Probst-esque host.

The text could be saying any number of things about western culture—violence as entertainment, total disregard for privacy, the superficiality of everything, taking wealth for granted while others starve right next door—but the thing that keeps the reader hooked is the page-turning story. Will the main characters live or die? It’s pretty much the most gripping question of all.

But when you've closed the book, what you'll best remember about The Hunger Games is the oft-uncomfortable glimpse it gives into your own mind. What would you do if you found yourself in a position where you had to kill or be killed? How much control do you have over your own id?

I think that in that kind of life-or-death situation you never know what you’ll do until you’re actually faced with such a choice, but at times I felt that I would show far less mercy than Katniss. I expect I’d perch in a tree, out of sight and wait for the other players to kill each other off. But if the opportunity arose to do away with a competitor without danger to myself, getting myself that much closer to safety… well, it would be hard not to take that opportunity.