The Hunger Games Dystopian Analysis

Appeal Of Dystopian Fiction on Mod ern Teens

The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand and the movie The Hunger Games directed by Francis Lawrence and Gary Ross are popular among teens because they can relate to them by the high expectations put upon them. In a dystopian novel or movie, there is a dystopian protagonist. A dystopian protagonist is someone who often feels trapped, struggles to escape, questions existing systems, believes or feels as if something is wrong in the place they live in, and then helps the audience realize the effects of dystopian worlds. These are both good examples because it takes us on a walk through the protagonist's life and only then do we see what dystopian really is.

In the novel Anthem, Equality 7-2521 is the protagonist.

At the end of the story, we see that Equality has gone through a number of things in the course of the story. After Equality had become a street sweeper, he finds a tunnel where he hides on a regular basis. He does science experiments to gain knowledge. He decides to show the council of scholars what he has created. In his society, they are forced to have a certain vocation. Teenagers can relate to this because some of us are pressured or even forced into doing certain jobs or certain things with our lives. Sometimes a parent or someone is very passionate about a certain vocation or way of life for their child. Other times a person feels pressured because it “runs in the family.” Maybe a parent or grandparent did that and so they feel as if they should too. Another thing that happens in the novel is he meets a girl named Liberty 5-3000-who he later names “The Golden One”. The only problem is men and women are not allowed to talk or even make contact of any form. The book says, “For men are forbidden to take notice of women, and women are forbidden to take notice of men. But we think of one among women, they whose name is Liberty 5-3000, and we think of no others.” ( Rand, 38) He falls in love with her but they are not supposed to be together. Teens can relate to this because sometimes when you fall in love with someone, someone else might oppose it. This usually happens with parents because they think teenagers cannot be in love. Clearly, this would be an easy novel for teenagers and young adults to grasp onto and relate to.

On the other hand, in movie The Hunger Games by Francis Lawrence and Gary Ross, Katniss is the protagonist.

Since she is the female victor from district 12, she is in the 74th Hunger Games. She sees how painful and scary it is and so she tries to stop the capital which is who is controlling everything. She doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else. She rebels against President Snow in plan of eventually killing him to take over the capital and change the world. Teens can relate to this because a lot of the time we feel controlled. It might be by a parent, teacher, grandparent or someone else but all of us are controlled by someone. A lot of teenagers end up rebelling because they feel as if they have no choices. They go against the rules of who they are rebelling against. That persons rules and values are not necessarily right. Who decides what is right? It seems as if we have entered into a state time where there is no right and wrong. Katniss breaks free of that control and does her own thing. Another way teens can relate to the hunger games is through the love triangle. Some of us might have a similar situation of where we might like two people. In the movie it says, “What I need is not Gales fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can

give me that.” (Katniss Everdeen, The Mocking Jay) Obviously, teenagers can reveal themselves through this story as well by being controlled and through love.

This novel and movie are both similar in a copious amount of ways.

They both take place in a dark and futuristic world and have a leader or leaders that they must follow and if not, there must be extreme consequences...even death. As Equality and Liberty fall in love, so do Katniss and Peeta. In my opinion, a dystopian society is a lot like our world today, just at a more drastic level. Dystopian literature is basically giving us advice through another teenagers perspective. It is an indirect form of advice that could be anything to with love, conflicts with other people, or even things like school. We learn a lot about oppression in both of these stories which causes us to really think about it and makes us look into the future to see what it will be like in reality.

Dystopian fiction has a great effect on teenagers because it causes us to look at the world differently. Anthem and The Hunger Games are great examples of what its like to live in a dystopian world and be a dystopian protagonist. I think teenagers can learn a lot through reading novels like this or watching the

movies.