Hunger Games

Answers is based on reading the Hunger Games book by Suzanne Collins. Compare and Contrast.
1. How does the media (movies, music, television, books, etc.) influence the way in which we view the world? Are there any negatives we associate with reality television? How might Susan Collins be warning us about the dangers of popular media?
2. Think of as many ways that we can categorize and divide people. Is it by their race? Their education? Their income? How is the world of Panem divided, and can you find any similarities in our own world?
3. Throughout the history of Panem’s Hunger Games, what groups are normally victorious? Why might District 12 have only one winner in its history? What gives Districts 1 or 2 or 3 an advantage over District 12? What is Collins trying to tell us about our own society?
3. Those competing in the Hunger Games are children who have no choice in their participation. What might Collins be suggesting about the status of children in our own world? How difficult might it be for children to make their own decisions in life? Keep in mind that 16.7 million children live in homes that struggle to put food on the table and that 200 million children around the world are forced into labor before the age of 10.
4. What does Collins seem to be saying about the role of government in our lives? Does she believe the government should be more concerned with helping its citizens live their lives to the fullest or with keeping them under control? Provide any real world examples that help illustrate this idea of political freedom v.s. control.
5.If the United States is the land of opportunity, why is our unemployment rate at 9.5% as of April 2010? And why is it that 51% of most Americans will live in poverty before the age of 65? How do these conflicting ideas resemble the stories told in Panem?
6. Collins is direct in telling us that a small girl from District 12 is less likely to win than a strong boy from District 2. Yet, things don’t seem to play out this way near the end of the novel. What skills allow the young girl from District 12 to overcome her situation? What do you think Collins is trying to say about the ability of children regardless of their status in life? And finally, how does this story change the way in which we view gender roles (e.g. a girl as a hunter, a boy as a baker, girls fighting boys, etc.)The only source needed is the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins