Children of Men is a movie about a world in which people are no longer being born. As in, human beings have just completely stopped giving birth. In this world, a 16 year old girl is found to be pregnant and must be protected if her child, the last hope for mankind to survive, is to born. Her protector, played by Clive Owen, protects her on their journey and ensures that she gives birth to her child.

This movie can be related to The Hunger Games in a few ways. The first, is in the main characters. They are both girls around 16 years of age. These young girls becomes humanity’s hope for survival. The second is that they are born into a world society is in disarray and must face danger around every corner. The last is when they must go on a journey for survival in order to save society and return the world to normalcy.

This week, Dr. Mazeroff came as a guest speaker and lectured about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. It is surprising to learn how many contemporary stories can be applied to the basic template of The Hero’s Journey.  With its story structure and archetypes, it perfectly fits The Hunger Games. Katniss is the perfect character to fit Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. For example, she is called to adventure when she feels as though she is forced to volunteer for the Hunger Games in order to save her sister. Another example is when she crosses the threshold into the unknown when she leaves her home district and enters the capitol. The belly of the whale can be equated to her time in the arena when she is forced to kill or be killed and then released back into the real world.

Another key component of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey are the archetypes. Most of the archetypes described by Campbell can be easily identified in The Hunger Games. The promise is when she tells her sister Prim that she will win the games and return home. The old man is a mentor figure that can be identified as Haymitch. The shapeshifter is a character whom the reader cannot decide which side he is on. This can be seen in Finnick. A final archetype is the amulet, which can be identified as the mockingjay pin, which gives Katniss strength and the will to persevere in the games.

Last Thursday, President Casey came to class as a guest and spoke about his life and just gave an autobiography about his origins and where he comes from. It gave a lot of insight as to who he is and why he does what he does. The whole lecture just made me admire Dr. Casey even more as a person. As far as application to the Hunger Games, the lecture gave insight to leaders in general, and why they do the things that they do. A lot of the time there is far more under the surface of a leader that you may not expect. These details provide explanation as to why they are leaders and why they have their own particular style of leading. For instance, Dr. Casey grew up in a low income home and loved teaching. Therefore, it makes sense that when he is making school policy, the students will always come first.

Dr. Raley's lecture on conventional romance and gender roles was extremely interesting. She gave a general overview of the sociology behind gender and how we present gender in modern day society. It is interesting to look at The Hunger Games and see Katniss, a female, take on the main role and handle situations better than any of the men. This is something that we don’t see very much in literature, where the men are expected to handle the tough situations and fight all the battles.

This leads to the next point where Dr. Raley talked about conventional relationships. It is extremely obvious that the relationship between Katniss and Peeta is not a very conventional relationship. Again, Katniss takes on the role of protector and provider, generally roles that are supposed to be taken by the man in a relationship. She looks after Peeta in the arena and makes sure that his wounds are taken care of and making sure that they have enough to eat. She even does most of the fighting. Dr. Raley’s lecture opened up a whole new side of The Hunger Games, in which the female lead takes on the stereotypical male roles in order to survive.

In the world of The Hunger Games, District 12 is located in what we call Appalachia. The Appalachian Mountains run from as far north as New England down south to Alabama and Georgia. In our Appalachia lecture, we primarily focused on the culture of Southern Appalachia, particularly in Tennessee and Alabama.  The history of the area is deep and rich, with cultural influences from many different cultures. The people who live there are descendants of Scotts-Irish, Eastern, and Central European ancestors. This has heavily influenced their musical culture.

Their music consists mainly of ballads, which are songs that tell stories. Their stories are made of a few central themes. The first, and most important, is the theme of place. The people of Appalachia are very proud and independent and they value their heritage and tradition above all else. Another key theme is the movement from agrarian to industrial economy. They create music to reflect the destruction of their environment and the dangerous work in the coal mines. In all of their music, there is a dichotomy between the beautiful landscape and wilderness, and the ugliness that can be found there.

 

The culture of District 12 is based on that of Appalachia and you can see that in District 12’s music.  Their songs, such as Deep in the Meadow and The Hanging Tree, are ballads that tell stories. The Valley Song shows Districts 12’s pride in their tradition. Both cultures are extremely resilient to adversity and use their sense of place to come together to fight adversity. They all have a passion for their homes and traditions that is unlike any other seen in the world.

Of the three books in The Hunger Games Trilogy, I liked the second book the most. It really developed on the character arcs and storyline of the first book in a great way. I like how it showed Katniss’ development as a character with how she begins to realize the extent of the oppression of the Capitol and the growth of the rebellion is a very real thing. The book as a whole just felt so much more dramatic and the events held more weight than they did in the first book. The uprising that takes place in the third book is foreshadowed and events seem to fall into place as people like Plutarch and Haymitch prepare for the war. I also like how the book ends. It leaves off with Katniss being rescued by the rebels with a lot of questions and suspense, making me want to read the third book right away.

Image taken from http://believeinplace.com/2013/10/27/empire-hunger-games-and-hope/

I was, however, very disappointed with the third book as a whole. It felt very rushed and contrived to me. I 
almost wish that Collins had taken the time to split it into two different books with a lot more content. There was no drama or suspense as there had been in the previous books. It felt almost journalistic with the events happening so fast with so little description. It just did not feel as satisfying to me as the other two books did.

In this week’s post, I will be
discussing the differences between the two novels The Hunger Games and Catching
Fire. Both of the novels are split into two distinct sections: outside of the
games and inside of the games.

 Both of the books start out in District
Twelve. Here, Collins shows just what state the Districts are in with regards
to the Capitol’s oppression. In the second novel, Catching Fire, Katniss and
Peeta actually leave District Twelve to go on the victory tour. In the first
novel, they never got to see the other districts except in passing on their way
to the Capitol. They get to see each of the different districts and see the
full extent of the Capitol’s harsh treatments. The second novel spends much
more time in the districts outside of the games than the first book did. I
think this is because Collins is trying to set up and foreshadow the coming
rebellion. The story becomes much more complex in the second novel as well. In
the first, it was all about Katniss and Peeta just trying to survive in the
arena, however in the second, they are shown just how far the Capitol goes to
control the districts and close the country is to its tipping point.

The first novel puts Katniss and
Peeta into the arena very early into the story because it is the focus of the
narrative. I think Collins did this to show the readers what Katniss’s and
Peeta’s personalities are and how they will interact with each other and other
people. The second novel does not put as much emphasis on the games themselves
but rather on the situation outside of the games in the capitol and the
districts.

Here is a video interview I found
on YouTube of a few of the cast members talking about how the second movie has
evolved from the first and differences between the two.