Essay Comparing Lord Of The Flies And The Hunger Games

Through the comparison of Lord of the Flies and the Hunger Games Trilogy with both displaying independent survival skills, failed leadership, and inhumanity, Golding’s and Collin’s thesis is proved that a stable society is incapable of being reached when the individual’s needs are put before the group’s.

In both the Island in Lord of the Flies and the Arena in Hunger Games, the children must resort to their individual survival skills, putting the needs of themselves in front of others, ultimately endangering the fate of them all. The boys of the island resort to savagery, threatening animals for their own benefit, which results in their own civilization's downfall. From, “this dreadful eruption from an unknown world [making] the sow frantic,”

with, “terrified squealing,” when, “the hunters hurled themselves at her,” the selfishness of the boy’s survival skills are shown (Golding 135). The children slaughter an innocent mother pig, killing their only source of food, for pure amusement as well as for food. The boys could care less when it comes to the world around them, only interested in their current desires. However, the boys receive consequences from their actions, being as they no longer have a food source, which comes back to bite them in the bum just like they had to the pig and the, “sting of another spear in her flank” (Golding 135). Similarly to the boys, Katniss acts out for herself, resulting in chaos in their society. When Katniss, “injured and treed”, is surrounded by, “the pack below [her],”, she resorts to indirectly killing her predators having, “the Careers [wake] to a full-scale tracker jacker attack,” and, “Glimmer twitching to death on the ground,” in order to survive (Collins “Hunger” 190-191). Katniss must kill her fellow tribute so that she can individually escape danger. With this final resort of dropping the genetically engineered mutations onto the Careers, Katniss endangers the safety of a group of people so that she can solely survive. Katniss is perceived by the audience poorly, because she acted for herself, killing the fan-favorite Careers, ultimately upsetting the Capitol.

Under the leadership of Jack Merridew in Lord of Flies and President Snow in the Hunger Games, both societies fail because the militant leader puts his needs before the good of the people.

When Jack is given the responsibility of tending the fire, he leads his followers to his own personal desires, rather than do what is best for the group, resulting in their own downfall. Ralph, frustrated with Jack, says, “There was a ship...You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out,” to which Jack responds, “We can light the fire again...You should have seen the blood!” (Golding 70). Jack has put what he wanted, the ability to prove his strength and leadership by killing the pig, before the entire group’s desires of being rescued, thinking they will have another opportunity to be rescued. With this power struggle between Ralph and Jack, the other boys think it is okay to go against their original leader, Ralph. So from this point on, the boys turn to savagery like their new leader Jack, putting their individual desires before their need of being rescued, eventually leading to the murders of Simon and Piggy. President Snow, much like Jack, exhibits a self-beneficiary motive when it comes to leading a group of people. Snow creates a society where, “In the Capitol they’re vomiting for the pleasure of filling their bellies again and again. Not from some illness of body or mind, not from spoiled food,” in which, “societies starve out their while the Capitol thrives” (“Catching

Fire” 80). President Snow chooses to pamper his friends and family, lavishly and to the extreme of having too much food, rather than give the majority of the people Panem just enough food to survive. From this unequal distribution of wealth, it is impossible for this kind of society to flourish when the majority of its people are struck by poverty and are just struggling to survive off of rations each and every day.

Both the boys of the island and the tributes of the districts resort to inhumanity, brutally killing one another, once again putting their selfish needs before anyone else’s.

In Lord of the Flies, Roger puts his desires before Piggy’s, and ultimately the civilization’s. “High overhead, Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment leaned all his weight on the lever,” and, “the rock struck Piggy” (Golding 192-193). Roger kills the enemy of the group: Piggy, because he is trying to bring civilization to a group of savages. So, without thinking about how this will affect the group, Roger goes right ahead and murders Piggy, killing civilization, and the order and wisdom inside of it. In the Hunger Games arena, Marvel kills Rue without thinking of the good of the people, leading to the society of District 11’s downfall. The tributes must put on a spectacle: a fight to the death, in order to gain donations from the sponsors. However, after the death of the District 11 tribute Rue, District 11 explodes in riot, protesting the demise of the fallen girl (Hunger Games). With this uprising, many people are killed for going against the Capitol. Marvel puts his needs of proving that he can murder the enemy, before others, not thinking about how it will affect a

society.