The Hunger Games Symbolism Essay Example

“The Hunger Games'' by Suzanna Collins is a fictional story based in a dystopian city named “Panem”. Panem is separated into 12 districts and 1 capital, our main character “Katniss Everdeen '' is from district 12, the coal-mining district. The first thing we see of district 12 is how poor it is, we see starving children and beggars. We are introduced to “tesserae”, which is an extra name in the ballet for bread and oats, and seeing the circumstances, I assume tesserae is used a lot here. Katniss tells us she put in 20 tesserae while her sister prim put in 0. We are then forwarded to the “reaping” where the 2 names are reaped and they will fight in The Hunger Games, the names are chosen by “Effie Trinket'' a pale woman with bright makeup and clothes, so contrasting to the rest of the district usually dressed in dirt brown and neutrals, then she begins to pull the name.. And it is Prim Everdeen. Katniss's sister, then out of the blue Katniss volunteers for Prim, the first volunteer District 12 has ever had, and now for the boys. She picks up a name, Peeta Melark, a wealthier boy in the district. They are brought to the stage and directed inside, where they get 10 minutes with their family. Prim went to see Katniss, asking her to take back her volunteerism, and Katniss refused. They are taken onto the train where they will be transported to the Capital of Panem, a big bright city where they will be interviewed for the games. We see glimpses into each district and the lifestyle and condition they are in, District 11 is almost just like 12 but instead of mining it is farming, while Districts 1, 2, and 3 are luxurious and financially stable, and eventually, we make it to the Capital, full of ignorant people, unaware of the mistreatment of the people in the districts, cheering on the reaped children like they are in a race! Katniss thinks these people are “entitled, ignorant and disgusting” for the carelessness they feel for her. The day of the arrival at the Capital is very busy, they are moved from fittings to makeup and everything. The next day is the parade, it is a parade where the tributes are on carriages, they enter based on the district they are in. Starting with 1 and ending with 12, usually, the outfits are the same concept every year with District 12 being coal miners, however this year there is a new stylist named “Cinna”. Katniss thinks he is different and relates to him because he doesn't speak at a high pitch and does not dress in bright colors like the rest of the Capital, just like his style he has a different approach to the District 12 outfits. He has the idea of Katniss being on fire, because coal burns. While at first thought the dress is just a dress, there is tons of symbolism in it. I assume the dress is meant to be a flame, and the flame symbolizes her life and determination of it, and when the flame dies out so does she, but not only does it have a bunch of symbolism it gives Katniss a bunch of publicity and more attention means more sponsors. After the parade, we see the jealousy of the other Districts by Katniss expressing the bad looks she is getting from them, while the Capital is naming Katniss “The Girl On Fire”. Then we enter into the interviews where the Capital gets their first look into the lives of the tributes, we see the first 3 districts cheerful and enthusiastic about the games like they enjoy it. Katniss gets on stage and the crowd goes wild, Katniss unaware of why, is shocked by the cheer. They ask her about why she volunteered and what she told her sister Prim before leaving for the Capital, then we have Peetas interview, where he expresses his “love” for Katniss and this angers Katniss because she thinks it makes her look weak, while Haymitch expresses how it makes her look desirable and gives her even more publicity, when I first read Peetas interview it reminds me of Romeo and Juliet a little bit. A few days pass and we get into the training, this is our first look into the skills of Katniss and the other tributes. We see how the first 3 districts uphold the name of careers, being good at everything and we see how good Katniss is at archery, but more importantly we meet Rue, a 12-year-old from District 11. We see she is very sneaky and good with a slingshot. The training goes on for a few days, and then we come to the day of the rankings. The rankings are scored from one through 12, it is ranked on your skill. We see the waiting and finally, we get to Katniss, and when she walks in, the judges seem bored because they have done it all day, and it angers Katniss so she shoots an arrow into an apple on the stage and walks out. We see she is scared that she will be avoxed because of the stunt and expresses sorrow for the incident, but when they see the ranking all the fear Katniss once had was gone. They have given her an 11, the highest of all the rankings. 

The Symbolism 

The Hunger Games has tons of symbolism, like how Panem is a symbol of a dystopian society, another example is the Mockingjay and it symbolizes hope, even the clothes in The Hunger Games have a meaning, how people in the Capital wear bright, and extraordinary clothes while people of the lower class (District 11 and 12) wear more neutral darkish colors in basic designs, I see how normalized the life in District 12 is because the way Katniss explains how different the Capital is, I think she was so used to the way of life in District 12 that she thought that was the norm.   

Throughout the book, I kept comparing this novel to Romeo And Juliet, how he expressed his love for her knowing they couldn't be together, I thought of this again when Peeta risked his life to distract Cato so Katniss could run, and when they threatened to commit suicide if they both couldn't win, however, this isn't the only character that symbolized something, next I will talk about Rue and what she symbolized to me. We first met Rue during the training where we saw how strengths and weaknesses, she was very good at climbing and very sneaky. Katniss compares Rue to her sister Prim several times throughout the novel. Rue is like a symbol of comfort for Katniss because of how alike she is to her sister Prim. We see Rue save Katnisses life when she is stuck in a tree with the Careers under her, and Rue points at the Tracker Jackers, which saved Katnisses life, and when Katniss got stung we see Rue hiding Katniss in the leaves. Katniss battles more with her emotions than actual people in The Hunger Games, and we see a ton of character development for Katniss, we see her thick skin shed a little throughout the novel, and we see how emotional she was when Rue died. We see how her perspective changed about Peeta, and how she would die if they couldn't both win. Now I am going to talk about the thing which had the most symbolism in the novel, the Mockingjay. The Mockingjay was a bird created by the capital during the war to spy on the districts but is now used to symbolize freedom and hope.

What the Hunger Games Mean

The Hunger Games were introduced after the war between the Districts and The Capital, the war was started by District 13 which was destroyed. The Hunger Games are supposed to be a memorial for the hardships and the supposed unity of Panem, by taking 1 boy and 1 girl aged 12 through 18 to fight in The Hunger Games. The problem is that while the Capital watches this as a “fun” tradition, the Districts see it as a death sentence, this shows the division between them and there is no unity in that. It is almost like the Capital is the bird and the Districts are the worm, one feeds off the other, even though there is a divide inside the Districts as well. Districts 1, 2, and 3 are usually considered Careers because they train for the hunger games and then volunteer. While Districts 11 and 12 consider the reaping as a death wish, causing unfairness in the games, which gives more evidence to my statement of Panem being a Dystopian Society. 

My Opinion 

In my opinion, this novel is very well written, and an emotional story. I would suggest this to anyone who is into dramatic romance. I think the symbolism in The Hunger Games is very well placed and after re-reading the book, I saw symbolism I didn't catch the first time around. I enjoyed the politics as well in this story, how the government saw them as a piece of a puzzle. This story is a very good representation of a dystopia, and it very well shows the division of power between the government and the people. I enjoyed the unique description and in-depth emotions of Katniss, and how she developed throughout the novel, however, I didn't like the repetitiveness of the “Starcross Lovers” and I felt like it was dragged on way too long without any reason why it was there in the first place, I did see the hint of Romeo And Juliet, but I didn't think it was enough for it to click for the average reader, I had to reread some chapters several times to see why certain things were important like the pin of the Mockingjay, and what it symbolized.

In conclusion, I would rate this book an 8 out of 10 because I didn't like the stretched-out storyline and the unfinished stories.