Journal #2

In this book I’m going to talk about a couple of the major themes this book touches on. One of these is the clear cut theme of society. The citizens of the Districts, specifically places like The Seam, are lower class. Therefore they live in far poorer conditions than the ones the people of the Capitol live in. There is also the fact that the citizens of Panem have little to no control over where they stand in society. In this world you are either born poor or born rich and if you’re born poor it is incredibly likely that you will die poor as well. I found the class based system within this book is extremely similar to the medieval feudal system. The citizens of the districts are the peasants, the peace keepers are knights, the people of the Capitol are the lords and the leader of the country is the king. In fact, it’s a little bit ironic. After the disaster that destroyed America overall society devolved into the archaic and forgotten feudal system. It is obvious after reading the book that there’s nothing the people of this country can do to change their class levels either, it all depends on where the person in born. The people of the Capitol can push a button and have their food appear on a platter before them whilst the people of the district have to ,illegally, forage and hunt in the woods around their district. This society is extremely unbalanced and as with almost every totalitarian government to have previously existed eventually the people will riot. 

Journal 1

In the first few chapters of the book The Hunger Games, the reaping takes place. The reaping is a grand draw with all the names of the people aged 12 to 18 in which one boys name and one girls name is picked to go to the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are an annual thing in which all the contestants fight untill death until one contestant is left. Each person in the age brackets name is entered once at age 12, twice at age 13 and so fourth. But in exchange for extra food you can have your name entered extra times.  This process is called a teserae. Katniss is the protagonist and she lives with her sister Prim and their mother. Katniss' father was killed in a fatal mine explosion and since then Katniss has taken responsibility for the food and care of the family by hunting and receiving teseraes due to the slum sad behaviour of her mother who hasn't been the same after the family tragedy. Katniss has a friend Gale who she hunts illegally with and they have become very close almost like family, but Katniss want more than that? I think so. Just before the reaping he tells Katniss to look pretty there, this gives her a fuzzy feeling inside which means she must have some feelings for him. Skipping ahead to the reaping, this year is prims first time being entered but since she is only entered once there is a low probability of her getting picked, but it happens, she is picked to got to the Games, but then Katniss comes to the rescue of her sister by volounteering to go in place of young innocent Prim.
#SWAG

Journal Entry #1

Firstly, the Hunger Games are a brutal challenge where two teenagers, one boy and one girl, from every district are forced to compete in. It was created by the Capitol to entertain themselves. If I was someone living in one of these districts i would stand up to the rich people in the Capitol. The Capitol uses the games to keep the less wealthy citizens in terror. The Hunger Games should not be allowed to happen, they are giving up young lives for foolish entertainment. If I was someone living in one of these districts I would stand up for proper rights. The Capitol would not be stronger than all the people in the districts working together. These teens shouldn't have their death determined by a lottery draw. They shouldn't have to live in horrible conditions where they barely have enough to eat and rarely get to use electricity. Secondly, Katniss made a very brave decision to stand up for her sister, Prim. I don't think this was the best decision for her family. Since Katniss is leaving her family she won't be there to provide for her sister and mother. After her father's death in the mine, she has become the main caretaker, which is a huge responsibility. Prim and her mother do not have the skills to hunt, trade and gather. Katniss developed these skills throughout her life, this would make her the better competitor over Prim. For this reason I can understand why Katniss would volunteer to replace her sister. But if Katniss does not win the Hunger Games her family will most likely suffer of malnutrition.

10 discussion questions on Character

1. Q: What kind of relationship do you think Katniss had with her father before his passing?
A: I think they were close, I also think she was more of a son to him because the book states that he taught her about weapons and about hunting which is usually a male task (not trying to be sexist). Also even 5 years later she wakes up screaming for her father to run from the fatal explosion that killed him.

2. Q: We are introduced to Gale, based on Katniss' tone, word choice, and emotion when she speaks of him do you think she wants to be more that bestfriends?
A: Yes, but i think there relationship is more of a brother sister since they are so close. I think she wants a more serious relationship because she is jealous when Gale speaks highly of other girls. She also states that hes the perfect catch, hes strong, handsome and can hunt. Also when he tells her to look pretty at the ceremonie, she blushes and gets a warm feeling inside.

3. Q: Katniss has her doubts about Peeta mellark, did you think he was being genuinly nice or did he have a malicious plot unvailing?
A: I believe he has malicious plans because his life depends on him winning the games, therefore he would not be genuinely nice to the enemy, I think he's trying to soften up Katniss to make her an easier kill.


4. Q: How do you think Peetas relationship with his Mom is like?
A: Not so good, first reason i believe this is that when she finds Peeta outside for too long near the beginning of the book when he gives the bread to Katniss, she slaps him and demands his immediate return inside. Secondly when she goes to visit Peeta before the games, she says that district 12 might finally have a winner this year hinting not at him but at Katniss.


5. Q: Katniss makes an alliance with Rue a small girl, why do you think she trusts Rue and makes the alliance even though she could easily kill her?
A: Because Rue reminds Katniss of Prim, a sweet innocent little girl that was sent to the games against her will, leaving her family behind. Also Rue saved Katniss by warning her about the beehive above her head.


6. Q: Why do you think Katniss tries not to get to attached or associated with Peeta?
A:  Because she thinks he may have malicious plans slowly unveiling. Also if they get to close killing each other will be a harder task mentally.


7. Q: Do you think other contestants fear Katniss?
A: Yes, especially after her score of 11 in the training session.


8. Q: Is Katniss confident that she will win the games?
A: I believe so, I think she feels she has to win or poor Prim will suffer dearly due to the unsecured care of her mother.


9. Q: When Peeta distracts Katniss to throw off her timing when she eyes down the arrows, do you think he was trying to protect her from the dangers of going in to the action or wanted to slim her chances of survival?
A: I think he was trying to protect her because he states that he loves her in his interview. Initially I thought Peeta was a snake and would simply kill Katniss when the games begun, but now after all the kissing and caring that Katniss has given Peeta, I now think that he genuinely cares.


10. Q: The games have proven that they can take a large mental toll on contestants, do you think mental instability will get to Katniss eventually?
A: Yes i think she will encounter a small mental breakdown but will quickly recover when it matters most.

The Hunger Games Review-By TIME Magazine

I used to tell my daughter stories about a family of mer-cats--kitties with fish tails--who lived in the East River and how they were persecuted by a mean purple octopus. I spent considerable time and effort coming up with nonviolent ways for the mer-cats to defeat the octopus at the end of each story. Finally one night I asked my daughter Lily, who was 4 at the time, how she thought the mer-cats should handle the problem. She chirpily replied that the mer-cats should find a sharp rock and then stab the octopus till it died. Ha, ha, ha! Kids.

If the time ever comes, Lily might do pretty well in the Hunger Games. As described by Suzanne Collins in her young-adult novel of the same name, the Hunger Games are an annual spectacle in which a group of children are forced by the government to fight one another to the death on TV. A sequel, Catching Fire (Scholastic; 400 pages), will be out on Sept. 1. The Hunger Games is a chilling, bloody and thoroughly horrifying book, a killer cocktail of Logan's Run, Lord of the Flies, The Running Man, reality TV and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. But it inspires in readers a kind of zeal I haven't seen since the early days of Twilight. Stephen King is a major fan. So is Stephenie Meyer.

The Hunger Games is set in an unspecified future time when things have gone pretty spectacularly badly for humanity. The world, or the bit of it we can see, is dominated by a ruling caste who live in luxury in a city called the Capitol. The rest of us live like peasants in 12 districts that are strictly cordoned off from the Capitol and one another. Life in the districts sucks: it's mostly hard labor--mining coal and farming and working in factories--in dismal conditions.

To make things even dismaler, once a year each district is required to give up two of its children, chosen by lottery, and enter them in the Hunger Games. The kids are dropped into an enormous arena strewn with traps and hazards, with a heap of weapons and supplies in the middle. The last child alive wins a lifetime of luxury and celebrity. The action is filmed and broadcast to the entire world.

We experience this ordeal through the eyes of Katniss, a resident of District 12, a harsh, cold region mostly given over to coal-mining. She is a passionate 16-year-old who hates the Capitol and is devoted to her family; she volunteers for the Games to take the place of her sister, whose name came up in the lottery. Katniss is a skilled hunter and sheer death with a bow and arrow. She doesn't like to kill. But she doesn't want to die either.

Whereas Katniss kills with finesse, Collins writes with raw power. After a life spent in freezing poverty, Katniss experiences pleasure--warmth, food, pretty clothes--with almost unbearable intensity, and that's where Collins' writing comes alive. (Not sex, though. The Hunger Games isn't just chaste, like Twilight; it's oddly non-erotic.) Likewise, Collins brings a cold, furious clarity to her accounts of physical violence. You might not think it would be possible, or desirable, for a young-adult writer to describe, slowly and in full focus, a teenage girl getting stung to death by a swarm of mutant hornets. It wasn't, until Collins did it. But rather than being repellent, the violence is strangely hypnotic. It's fairy-tale violence, Brothers Grimm violence--not a cheap thrill but a symbol of something deeper. (One of the paradoxes of the book is that it condemns the action in the arena while also inviting us to enjoy it, sting by sting. Despite ourselves, we do.)

Katniss survives the first novel, and the second finds her back in the arena, where she will try, in her words, to "show them that I'm more than just a piece in their Games." The Hunger Games and Catching Fire expose children to exactly the kind of violence we usually shield them from. But that just goes to show how much adults forget about what it's like to be a child. Kids are physical creatures, and they're not stupid. They know all about violence and power and raw emotions. What's really scary is when adults pretend that such things don't exist.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1919156,00.html#ixzz1f3eDWswn

Journal #1

In this entry I'm going to talk about what makes the book for me. For me the setting makes the book. The book takes place in the country of Panem which roses from the “ashes of America”. So far in the book it's not explicitly explained how America was destroyed but it is implied that a global nuclear war was the cause. About 75 years before the book takes place all of the districts rebel and go to war with the Capitol. They lose this war ,district 13 is destroyed and in order to spite the various districts and keep them under control the Capitol creates “The Hunger Games”. Basically two tributes, a boy and girl, from all the districts are put into an arena and told to fight to the death. The world of The Hunger Games is a very dystopian world that's ruled by a totalitarian government. The people who live in the Capitol evidently live easy going lives where they have almost no worries and can look forward to the Hunger Games where they can watch people murder each other their enjoyment. It’s obvious that in comparison to the lives led by the people of the Capital the men and women of the district live harsh and strenuous lives. It’s clear that the Capitol does not want to deal with another war with the people of the districts and in order to prevent this possible war they flaunt all the power they hold over them. It’s clear when this story begins people do not like their lives but they simply go with them, not thinking anything they do will make a difference. Does this setting remind any of you guys of any movies or other books? It reminds of the future talked about in the “Terminator” movies.

Betrayal or strategy ?

Katniss slowly falls for Peeta's personality as they work together throughout the training. What makes her bring her guard down? She swore she was going to do this alone because she was not going to jeopardize her spot in the games. But Katniss soon changes her mind and starts working with Peeta, trustfully.

In the games Katniss over hears a group of competitors passing by while eliminating another player. What she hears is nothing to feel good abou.t Then she hears his voice. The voice of her partner in training. The boy who had taken the beating from his parents just to give her a loaf of bread. Has Peeta betrayed her? Was this his plan all along? Is this a big joke and his plan to kill the group he's with or is he actually plotting to eventually kill Katniss?

It's just like those games of dodgeball when you make an alliance with your friend on the other team, and you play but randomly in the middle of the game she hits you, and you're out. Yes, you had an alliance but if she wanted to win, she had eliminate you. Of course this is a much different situation but the same terms. They didn't MAKE an alliance but it was clearly obvious. They were always together and they both kind of knew each other's strengths, weaknesses and strategies. They came from the same district! That's what made it kind of obvious that they wouldn't kill each each other unless it came right down to it.

Journal #1

Katniss is a character that has a lot of responsibility, she is considered the mother because her mom isn't helping at all so, Katniss gets all the food and all the other supplies her sister and mother need. She hunts often with Gale, a hunter she met a couple years back while hunting. They do better when they hunt together. The day of The Reaping Prim, Katniss's sister is nervous, but Katniss insists that she is going to be fine. When Katniss hears her sister's name called she knows that she has to do something and she sacrifices everything just so that her little sister could be free. If it came to a situation like that, I think I would do the same and sacrifice myself for my sister because I would want her to be safe. I wouldn't want her to have to lose her life, when I could save her. Even though she thinks she doesn't have a chance I think she doesn't know what she is capable of when she is fighting for her family and her friends. She has good survival skills, and she knows when to use them. I don't think she knows that she actually has a chance in winning the games. I think this because she is willing to fight on behalf of her sister. As long as she thinks properly and stays calm, she will have a really good chance at winning the Hunger Games.

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