I loved this book. Compared to other young adult books I feel this one is above and beyond the others. The author pulled me in and had me loving all of the characters. Even smelly Haymitch. The story is awesome. I read the book within 24 hours I was so entranced with it and then had to get my hands on Catching Fire.
It was so crazy for me to read that the kids form groups with one another, knowing that they would eventually have to kill the people they teamed up with. I don’t know that I could do that, or kill anyone for that matter. I suppose they were brought up differently and don’t value life as much as we do now? What kind of people would put together the hunger games for the entertainment of others? I tried to draw parallels of this with our society and when watching The Biggest Loser on Tuesday realized the book and show are very similar! They compete for one winner, and they are all starving for food. Hehe. A lot of America, including me will watch every Tuesday night to see how their competition has gone and who is getting “killed off” that week. The Hunger Games is The Biggest Loser on steroids.
I wish the third book would come out already!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why do you think that the people in the book might be brought up differently & don't value life as much as we do now? I got the exact opposite impression. The characters seemed to really value their lives and struggled to survive. Katnis had to hunt her own food to feed her family, and the citizens of all of the districts seemed to really fear reaping day because they didn't want to lose their lives. Did you mean the government didn't value life as much as our government? If so, I also disagree, because our government sacrifices human lives all of the time for reasons they try to justify (war crimes, refusing life-saving health care, upholding the death penalty, etc). But what our government & others today have done to people is just as (if not more) horific as the HG's - and it gets plastered on the news all of the time, for entertainment purposes.
ReplyDeletewoa! Ok well what I meant is it seems in the Hunger Games that life is not as "cherished" or "respected" because one of your neighbors could die tomorrow and it would just be another death. In each district there is barely enough food to support the population - with a surplus of course for the winning victors, and the "upper class." However they were not allowed (or didn't want) to organize any sort of humanitarian aid, or soup kitchen as we do in our society. Also, living conditions were poor, and work conditions were dangerous. So people died all the time and it didn't seem as horrific (with exception of her dad dying) as it would be in today's society. (Yes, I understand that people are dying in our society, but not my neighbors/family/co-workers) So I was saying, I don't think I could go into the arena and kill others. I think I would rather be killed than take the life of someone else. With that being said, I don't think Katniss is a horrible person... she did what she had to do to survive, and return home to take care of her family. When I was first reading the book I thought that Katniss would get in there and the tributes would all join together and agree not to kill each other while they tried to escape and stick it to the man. I'll admit I was shocked when killings actually happened. But then I realized they couldn't do that because the Capitol would find a way to force them to kill each other anyway... or kill them all in the process. Also, Katniss promised her sister that she would really try to come back to her, and the games are televised, meaning if she gave up to die her sister would see that and then become discouraged fighting for her life back home.
ReplyDeleteI like this discussion :) Even though I totally disagree with you about the cherishing/respecting lives thing. But, more importantly, you would seriously rather be killed than take the life of someone else? In a life or death situation like that, you would puss out? Why?
ReplyDeleteI am at work so I don't have time to go into this book (but trust me I will tonight). But I just wanted to say that if just Joy, Kate, and I were thrown into the Hunger Games Kate would totally win.
ReplyDeleteLOL - love it. I honestly don't think I could kill someone just because someone else told me to. There is one situation I can think of where I wouldn't be a total "puss" and that would be protecting my future children/husband from imminent death. There are probably other off the wall situations where I wouldn't hesitate pulling a trigger. But being placed in an arena with 23 other people being told "kill, or be killed" well I think I'd rather be killed. Think about living with yourself for the next 40+ years knowing you are alive because x number of people are dead. I think a big part of my feelings are my beliefs of what happens when we die. We're all going to die sometime, why not in the arena?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's ever right to kill someone else just so you can keep living, in a war to protect your family maybe, but certainly not for entertainment for others. It's very interesting though how carefully the author leads Katniss through the arena without killing anyone in cold blood. The boy who kills Rue that Katniss shoots down in an attempt to slay is a situation that leaves the reader trying to justify her actions just as she does in the book as well.
ReplyDeleteI think there is also much less value on human life in the society then in ours. People starve to death regularly while the capital city practices Bulemia to enjoy feasts more. A Peeta has to burn loafs of bread and pretend he's giving them to a pig to give to starving Katniss. This is definitely a dark society indeed.
Rachel, you are hilarious! You think I would win, probably because I'm the meanest (which is true). I don't know though... You are faster, in better shape, think better under pressure, and have quicker reflexes (ok, EVERYONE has quicker reflexes than me...joy & em will also agree...). But my money is on Joy. She plays coy. "Ooo, I couldn't kill anyone" and lures you in with her charm, her contagious laugh, her charisma, and then BOOM, you're a gonner before you even know what hits you. :)
ReplyDeleteNo, it would be you Kate. Joy and I would make it easy on you, though. We'd eat the berries.
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Games and Catching Fire are SO good :D
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until Book 3 and the movie
Themockingjay.vndv.com
Hey Eric, are they really making it into a movie? That would totally suck. I hate it when they take books I like and defile them with a screenplay.
ReplyDelete