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Instructions:
To use this website properly, read the summary first. If you have any questions you can read the additional grey articles. To read them, click on the grey triangles. You will find extra information in those. The summary continues until the end of the page, regardless of the grey squares in between. Happy reading :)
Note:
I would personally recommend reading the article about the similarities between the Roman Empire and Panem (included in the article about the Hunger Games), Katniss’s Biografie, Peeta’s and Finnick’s characterizations and the article about symbolism in Panem, as these are the ones that worked best for me.
Introduction:
The “Hunger Games” is a novel written by Suzanne Collins and published in 2008. It was followed by two other sequels to form a trilogy, the second one being “Catching Fire” (2009) and the final book “Mockingjay”(2010). As an addition, “the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”was published in 2020 and is telling the story 64 years before the original trilogy. Later next year, in 2025, another prequel: “Sunrise on the Reaping”, will be released.
Summary:
The Hunger Games take place in a dystopian world far in our future, on a post apocalyptic continent called Panem that was known as North America earlier in the days, before some unknown catastrophe left the earth become almost completely inhabitable. Most of the knowledge was lost during this devastating incident leaving the survivors rebuild a society with almost nothing.
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This nation is split into 13 districts, which were all assigned a specific purpose, using the habitable land in the most efficient way possible. In the center lays the Capitol, the region where the rulers of the country live.
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The story soon introduces the so called Hunger Games, remains of a punishment established after the Dark Ages, when a rebellion disrupted the totalitarian regime, which was in power until then.
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Through the eyes of Katniss Everdeen, a girl living in district 12 who volunteers as a tribute to participate in the 74th Hunger Games to take the place of her sister, the reader soon learns how cruel the games actually are.
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Together with Peeta Mellark, a baker’s son, she is almost immediately taken away to the Capitol to prepare herself for the games. That's also where she meets the other contestants.
She soon realizes how different the residents of the Capitol live. While she is used to mindful consumerism, she is now facing wasteful behavior and overconsumption. She doesn’t have a lot of time to think about it, as she is ultimately sent into the arena three days later.