The Hunger Games - More to the Story Than You Think (Schindler)

## **Introduction**

We live in a “Wired World.” Because of this fans have more opportunities than they ever have before to connect with what they love and others that love it as well. This has become an excellent thing for book lovers. There has been many books to be adapted into movies or television series due to the amount of fans they have. An example of this is the trilogy The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The banner to the right shows the symbols shown on the book covers of the trilogy. The amount of love that was shown for Collins book series caught the attention of those in Hollywood, and a movie series was born. When the first movie was released, fans rushed to theaters to see it. The same happened for every movie of the series after. The movies produced even more fans for the series.

Fans took to the Internet to express their love for the series. Hunger Games fans have made tons of video edits featuring various clips from the movies. Fans have created their own movie versions of the books and their characters. Fans have also created works of fiction which are widely called fan fiction dealing with the books and their characters. The “Wired World” we live in has provided them with the opportunity to make all of this content and share it with other fans at the click of the button. Fans are using all of these different types of remediation to keep what they love alive. The “Wired World” also gives fans the ability to connect with the authors of their favorite books via the Internet. Fans can also connect with one another on message boards.

Everyone interprets what they read differently. We all may have some similarities in how we interpret a work but essentially we all have are own way of seeing things. What many don’t stop to think about is how this relates to authors as well. Some authors manage to get their points across very well and others do not. Sometimes the inspiration authors have for a book is from an angle that the readers may never have thought of. Sometimes authors create a parallel between their work and another piece of work. The latter is exactly what Suzanne Collins did with The Hunger Games. If we dig deeper we can understand just what Collins was thinking in order to create this series.

## **Author Intentions**

### *The Myth*

Many may not recognize the basis of The Hunger Games story. I know I sure didn’t. Suzanne Collins states in an interview with Rick Margolis from The School Library Journal that the inspiration for the story actually came from a story in Greek mythology.

“‘It’s very much based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I read when I was eight years old. I was a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology. As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that’s half man and half bull. Even when I was a little kid, the story took my breath away, because it was so cruel, and Crete was so ruthless,’” Collins said.

A picture of the Minotaur and Theseus fighting is featured on the right.

### *Drawing Parallels*

After knowing this we can make clear parallels with the book and the Greek myth. The reason for the Games is due to a rebellion the country went through years before the start of the books. As punishment for the people’s crimes the Capitol issued a treaty called “The Treaty of Treason.” This treaty calls for the people to do the same thing the Athenians in myth had to do. The people of the 12 districts had to send one male and one female to compete to the death. Both had to be between the ages of 12 and 18. Collins did throw in her own twist, of course. There was a whole ceremony in the book called “The Reaping”, and this is when they choose who the tributes would be if no one volunteered. A catch was the older you got the more your name was put into the drawing, for lack of a better word.

In this case there was no literal Minotaur, or monster, in the arena with the tributes. The Capitol made the tributes the Minotaurs of The Hunger Games series. The Capitol makes them into monsters. The Capitol could also be considered the Minotaur of her story. The Capitol was just as ruthless and cruel as Crete was in the myth. Collins said that the idea to incorporate the tributes fighting in an arena against one another came from the Roman gladiator games.

### *The Capitol's Message*

In Collins story the Capitol was sending their people the same message as was being sent to the Athenians in the myth which was basically as Collins puts it,”’...mess with us and we’ll do something worse than kill you—we’ll kill your children.’” I was not familiar with this myth, and I do not know how many fans of the series are. Learning where the inspiration from this series derived from has put an new perspective on the whole series for me. I honestly wish I would have looked into this sooner.

### *Ending the Cycle*

Knowing about Theseus in the myth puts the story into even more perspective on the relation between the two. Collins said that in the myth “‘the cycle doesn’t end until Theseus volunteers to go, and he kills the Minotaur.’” Katniss is the parallel to Theseus in Collins’ series. Once Katniss is thrown in the Games everything changes. She slyly defeats the Capitol at the end of the first book when she suggests that instead of them trying to kill one another they commit suicide together by eating poisonous berries. Katniss makes the game her own and turns it against the Capitol which is where it differentiates from the myth a bit because she doesn’t directly “kill” the Capitol. Seems a little Romeo and Juliet as well, if I do say so myself. The Capitol stops them both and lets them live in order to have a victor or in this case victors. The Capitol is quite expectedly not happy about the outcome. Katniss has interrupted the cycle, but she has not stopped it yet.

In the second book, it is a special year for the *Hunger Games*. Because of its specialness being a quarter year games the Capitol does something special. That something special is having past victors come back to compete in another Game yet again. In this one with the help of some of the other victors is when Katniss manages to take down the Games and start the revolution against the Capitol.

### *Interacting With Fans*

Suzanne can be seen interacting with fans more in person than online. However, this video is featured online for other fans to see. In this video, Collins talks with fans about what being in *The Hunger Games* would be like and if they think they could survive. She also mentions a game that is available for fans to play online on Scholastic’s website.

## **Remediation**

### *The Movies*

One of the biggest form of remediation The Hunger Games book series saw was being made into a series of movies. The movies include *The Hunger Games*, *Catching Fire*, *Mockingjay Part One*, and *Mockingjay Part Two*. These are the same titles as the books. The directors of the films decided to split the last book into two movies. The parody, *The Starving Game*, that was made in regards to the first film was another form of remediation as well.

However, fans of The Hunger Games love to remediate just like all other fans in the world. Fans use social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Wattpad, Twitter, YouTube and many more to post the remediation content they create.

### *Fan Art*

Many fans in The Hunger Games fandom have made their own works of art, whether computer generated or by hand, of the characters of the series. The amount of creative some of these fans possess is amazing. Fan art like video game art is not highly respected in the art world, but it should be. Computer generated art is still art. It is just in a different form. For instance, the two art pieces featured on the left are both amazing pieces that were not hand drawn. If you click on the link on the second piece you can see many more just like it.

### *Fan Fiction*

Hunger Games fans love to create their own stories centered around the original characters in the books. The ways that they do this tends to vary from story to story as does the length. The length of the stories can range from small snippets, which are widely known in the fandom community as drabbles and do not exceed 1000 words, to entire books. A favorited way to write such stories is reader inserts. This is where the reader actually becomes a part of the story. By adding another character, these writers can play around with what it would have been like if there was another character in the books and what it could have changed. These stories give the reader and the author the opportunity to feel more in touch with world in the book. An example of a reader insert book can be found here (don’t forget link).

Fan authors do not only write reader inserts. There have been fan authors who like to write add-ins to the original books or recreate scenes in a different way than they happened in the books. Some like to imagine what Katniss and Peeta’s lives are like now. These writers are full of imagination and due to that the possibilities of stories is endless. Stories like these, which are more widely known as fan fiction, tend to not be as respected as much in the literary world. However, some of these works of fan fiction are sure to have good plots and good writing. I believe this should be taken into account before stories are dismissed without a single read.

### *Fan Films*

The Hunger Games fandom does not stop there. Just as endless as the possibilities are with written stories so they are with short films. Many fans have taken to Youtube to post their own versions of The Hunger Games. There are some short films that have played with scenes that were described in the books but not much seen in the movie like Haymitch or Finnick Odair stories. Most seem to not include the original characters at all. These short films place their own characters into a “Hunger Games” and create their own stories. A few even place in their own messages they want to get across to their audience alongside Suzanne Collins message.

### *Fan Fiction as Literary Work*

In class we have discussed the statistics the Reading at Risk Report presented us. This report claimed that literary reading is decreasing, and that this is an issue. The report said the "comprehensive survey of American literary reading presents a detailed but bleak assessment of the decline of reading's role in the nation's culture." What defines something as a literary work? How come this works of fan fiction are not considered literary works? According to one definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, literature is “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.”  I believe there to be some works by fans that could fall under this definition. I am not an expert on the issue nor will I claim to be, but I do know of several very popular works that were originally works of fan fiction. Before these form of writing is completely disregarded a harder look should be taken at it. If these types of works were taken into consideration as literary works I think we would see more reading is being done than initially thought.

## **Knowledge Communities**

With a fanbase as big as the one The Hunger Games has there is no way there can not be any knowledge communities. Fans have made websites in which they post about series. Others use social media sites or message boards that are already set up.

### *Fan Websites*

A fan of The Hunger Games named Jessica started up a website called “The Hob - A Tribute to the Hunger Games.” The headliner for the website is an interview she did with several other fan websites. The interview was with the actress who played Rue in The Hunger Games movie, Amandla Stenberg. Jessica did the interview with the fansites “mockingjay.net”, “Hunger Games Fireside Chat”, and “Down with the Capitol” which were all active at the time of the interview.

Jessica’s site is no longer active, but it is still up for fans of the series to view and enjoy. The “mockingjay.net” site is no longer active or available to fans. “Hunger Games Fireside Chat” is no longer active, but their site is still up for fans to enjoy as well. The fans that ran this website even made a podcast to discuss the series. The fansite “Down with the Capitol” is actually hosted by the social media site Tumblr. It is no longer active either, but is still there for fan enjoyment. According to the date stamps on some of the websites, they were very active during The Hunger Games era, the time during the release of the books and movies.

### *Fans on Social Media & Chat Rooms*

More than anything else fans use social media to connect with one another and share Hunger Games content. They use chat rooms before the obvious reason of discussing the series. Many fans will use sites like Instagram and Tumblr to post content they find interesting and want to share with their fellow fans. This content usually includes video edits from the movies, fan art, fan fiction, and memes. Social media and chat rooms are the birthplaces for memes and inside jokes for the fandom. An example of this social media community is the aforementioned fansite “Down with the Capitol” which is hosted by Tumblr.

The series is not as much of a hot topic as it was when the books were still coming out and the movies were being made because of this not as many posts are made as there once was. These social media accounts tend to be a combination of several different fandoms, and the creators do not just post about The Hunger Games. As a fan of The Hunger Games books and movies I still remember how much content was posted during the era of the movies and books. Instagram and Tumblr were the sites to go to if I ever wanted to find some funny posts about the series. One good place for fans of the books to discuss is the one on goodreads.com. Not many chat rooms for this fandom are still open. The one on Good Reads is still open, but it has not been posted on since 2014. If the books were more recent, there would be plenty of new posts to read.

## **In Conclusion**

The Hunger Games series has seen a lot of attention in its time in the literary and film world. It continues to draw more and more fans in. These fans have created wonderful literary, film, and art works. Some of these works should be taken just as seriously as the originals, in my opinion. Fan fiction is something highly read among fans due to the immersive feelings it gives them. The Reading at Risk Report claims that “literary reading” is at risk. I do not believe reading is as at risk as they believe, but then again I am a very avid reader. Maybe if they considered some of these fan fictions as literary readings the statistics would not seem as bad. After doing this project, I believe readers should take a better look at what the author’s intentions with a series is. I had no idea where the inspiration from this story came from and now that I do it has given me a whole new outlook. It is obvious that nowadays fan communities have a way to communicate with each other from across the world. Fanbases, or fandoms, are amazing things to be a part of, and I suggest everyone have the experience of being a part of one.

## References

1. ↑ Lisa,"The Hunger Games is Not a Feminist Masterpiece", *The Fundamentals*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Rick Margolis, "A Killer Story: An Interview with Suzanne Collins, Author of ‘The Hunger Games’ | Under Cover", School Library Journal
3. ↑ "Theseus and the Minotaur", Clapham School
4. ↑ Borders Media, "HUNGER GAMES Author Suzanne Collins Talks to Fans"
5. ↑ Kristina Tsenova, "Girl on Fire", Nerdist
6. ↑ Hilary White, "The Most Beautiful and Heartbreaking Hunger Games Fan Art", Popsugar
7. ↑ Drabbletastic, "Drabble Games: Round 2", Tumblr
8. ↑ Jay\_theFangirl, "Living Lies", Wattpad
9. ↑ MainstayPro, "Hunger Games: The Second Quarter Quell", YouTube
10. ↑ Joshua Chislett, "Finnick Odair - A Hunger Games Story - Fan Film", YouTube
11. ↑ HeyYouMen1, "Rising Hope - Hunger Games (A Hunger Games Fan Fiction)", YouTube
12. ↑ Reading at Risk Report, HUM 211 - Course Reading
13. ↑ Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Literature", merriam-webster.com
14. ↑ The Hob, "Exclusive Interview: Amandla Stenberg at Toys R Us in NYC", thehob.org