Compare and Contrast Essay: Hunger Games vs. Divergent

When writing a book an author has a lot of genres they can choose from. Some of them include fiction, fantasy, non fiction, and sci fi. One very interesting genre is dystopian fiction. Dystopia is an imagined society in which there is great suffering or injustice. Two very iconic young adult dystopian books are Hunger Games, and Divergent. The Hunger Games was written by Suzanne Collins and published on September 14, 2008. Divergent was written by Veronica Roth and published on April 26, 2011. Even though these are both dystopian Y/A (young adult) novels that were written at relatively the same time, they are very different. This shows just how much possibility there is when it comes to books. The Hunger Games and Divergent are both dystopian novels that have differences and similarities when it comes to the content, structure, and text.

The Hunger Games takes place in the Nation of Panem. The plot of the book is that there are 16 districts that send two  people each year to fight to the death. The districts are numbered from worst to best. District one being prestigious, and  rich and 16 being poor, filled with famine and unemployment. Divergent on the other hand is set in the future, in a dystopian version of Chicago. In Divergent there are five factions. Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Dauntless, and Erudite. Each faction represents a different group of people with different characteristics. Abnegation is the selfless, Candor is the honest, Amity is peaceful, Dauntless is brave, and Erudite is intelgiance. Even though there isn't one particular faction that is above the others the factions don't tend to get along. There is also constant conflict between them. Every faction thinks they are the best. That is the basic difference between Divergent and The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games was published on September 14, 2008.  According to Common Sense Media Hunger Games is geared towards 12 and up. Divergent was published on April 26, 2011. According to Common Sense Media Divergent is geared towards 13 and up. The age these books are geared towards are pre-teens. Both books also have sequels. In The Hunger Games the story starts off with Katniss the protagonist. It explains her story a bit and then dives right into the action. The rest of the book is the hunger games themselves. This portion of the book is jam packed with action, and fight scenes. In Divergent it starts off with a bit of Tris’s background. Tris is the main protagonist of Divergent. The rest of the book is mostly just about her living her life and learning to adjust in her new faction. The real “climax” of this book occurs when the  Erudite leaders team up with the Dauntless leaders to overtake Abnegation. This happens at the very end of the book. The reason for this is because there are three other books that continue the story. In The Hunger Games there are two other books but you can read the first one as a stand alone. That is how The Hunger Games and Divergent differ from each other structurally. 

A lot of books rely on character development. In Divergent there is character development but it is portrayed in a very vague way. The author doesn't really focus on the characters themselves but on their actions.  This particular writing style doesn't promote much empathy for the characters. Many characters died, even Tris, but you didn't necessarily feel bad for her death. The author of The Hunger Games on the other hand balances out action and character development perfectly. Not only do I feel empathy for the protagonist I also feel empathy for the antagonist. Both books lack when it comes to the unnecessary details added. Divergent is a much larger book so it did have more filler chapters, but even The Hunger Games had chapters with details that didn't affect the book at all. Another point in character development is the background of the characters. The Hunger Games, and Divergent do a phenomenal job at including background stories of both the characters in a way that the past and the present intertwine. This helps us understand why the characters are acting a specific way. Those are some of the weaknesses and strengths of both these iconic authors' writing styles.

Two of the most popular dystopian novels are The Hunger Games and Divergent. They are both dystopian novels that touch on the topic of a split society. Both novels are geared towards the same age range and they both have strong female protagonists. Divergent is a four book series while The Hunger Games is a trilogy. The Hunger Games has more character development while Divergent focuses more on action and experience. They also both do a great job in interwinding the characters past and present. These simple changes in the writer’s style can affect a book greatly. By just reading the summaries of these books you might think they are similar, but in reality they have some major differences. So, whether a book is dystopian or fantasy the writing style can really affect and change the overall story.