The Hunger Games - Theme of Strength and Skill

By Karoline Lilleberg

The Hunger Games is a series of three adventure novels written by the American author Suzanne Collins. The series is set in The Hunger Games universe, and follows the sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. The novels in the trilogy are titled The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). The novels have all been developed into films.

The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in "Panem", a country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and twelve districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children are chosen to participate in a compulsory annual televised death match called The Hunger Games. (Wikipedia, 2015)

In the Hunger Games, each candidate has his or her own set of skills and strengths. There's Cato, who has a crazy temper and can snap someone's neck with his bare hands. There's Foxface, the craftiest girl in the whole game, little Rue who can jump from tree to tree, and of course, Peeta who is real good at camouflaging. Then there's our heroine to be, Katniss, who is incredible with a bow and arrow. Just like in real life, everyone has some kind of strength or skill all their own. So, it’s all about what combination of strengths and skills will it take to win the games? (Shmoop, 2015)

I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. The competition will be far beyond my abilities. Kids from wealthier districts, where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out before the real fun begins. (Collins, 2008, s. 44)

Katniss thinks this for herself after volunteering instead of her younger sister. And that’s something to teach the students, that you don’t have to be rich and wealthy to manage. Katniss is a very good example of that, especially when she wins the whole competition.

There is many different tasks to work with in a class, both if you’ve watched the movie or read the book, or both. A while-reading, or while-watching strategy might be “Who is, in your opinion, the strongest tribute in the Hunger Games?”. When you’ve watched it, or read it, there’s a bunch of different types of questions. But questions related to the theme of strength and skill, is for example:

1.      If you were in the Hunger Games, what would you consider your strongest fighting or survival skills? What sort of score would you earn from the judges?

2.      Why was Foxface such a good competitor? Why did she die?

3.      What is Peeta's special skill? If Katniss weren't in the Hunger Games, what kind of a chance would Peeta have of coming out alive?

4.      What strengths made Katniss the victor?

(Shmoop, 2015)

Both the book and the movie is quite harsh. The age limit on the movie it set to 11 years, but there’s a lot of criticism to this, and precisely because of the main part: The Hunger Games. A game where children fight children, it’s about staying alive and killing other. The Media Authority justifies the age limit of 11 years on the film in this way “The film contains violence and several scenes with dead people. When these are only little intimate portrayed and takes place in a rather unrealistic universe, the film gets an 11 year age limit.” (NRK, 2012)

I find both the film and the movie suitable for 11 year olds and everyone above. Besides, almost every child these days probably have watched the movie already, and maybe read the book as well. And if you want to, there is room to just make them read parts of the book, or watch parts of the movie. Not every scene contains a dead body or even blood. There is some really, really good scenes throughout the whole story.