Rebellious characters make Hunger Games thrilling

Fans of trilogy owe it to themselves to see the movie

For those of you who don’t know, The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books that is essentially a battle royal set in a world like George Orwell’s 1984.

The premise is that, in a dystopian future, North America is divided into 12 districts all under the totalitarian rule of a government called the Capitol. Every year, the districts must send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete in the Hunger Games, in which they must fight to the death until only one child is left. The protagonist is a 16-year-old girl named Katniss, who comes from the poorest district. She and a boy named Peeta are chosen to compete.

Awesome, right? Well, that’s certainly what a lot of people think. All three titles in The Hunger Games trilogy were on bestseller lists and have also received critical acclaim. In fact, they’ve become popular enough to warrant a film adaptation.

But what is it that makes these books so popular?

Well, the love triangle is one reason. Yep, there’s a love triangle and in my opinion, it is one of the weaker points in the series. But many teenage girls do not share my opinion and are committed members of either Team Peeta or Team Gale (the two young boys in the triangle). While the love story isn’t the main focus in any of the books, it is something that a lot of fans latch on to. It creates a controversy, similar to that in the Twilight saga, over who our heroine Katniss will choose.

Then, there’s the rebel aspect. The series is marketed to teens and young adults and if there’s anything you adults might remember about being hip, it’s being a rebel. You know, going against the system. That stuff. Well, that is exactly what the Hunger Games is about. In the first book, the Games themselves are first and foremost, but because of something Katniss does at the end of it (no spoilers), there are rebellions against the Capitol in Book Two, and a straight-out Panemian Civil War in the third. Kids dig that. They idolize rebels. That’s why Star Wars is so popular.

And of course, there’s the final reason. The premise itself. I mean, the notion of kids killing each other is such a grimly interesting subject. It’s revolting, but it keeps you reading. You never know what’s going to happen. Like in Book One, Katniss makes several allies in the Arena, where the games take place, but she knows she’s going to have to kill them to survive. Therefore, the central conflict throughout the book is about Katniss’s choices. Once you’ve completed the first book, you can’t wait to see what happens next, as you’ve become engaged with these characters (or those who survive, anyway) and you want to know whether they’ll survive the next book, too.

My personal opinion, though? I really like the characters. Pretty much all the characters are engaging and really strong. Even the ones that I thought were a little one-note earlier all go through some development later on (cough, Gale, cough). The story gets us to love or hate the characters that we are intended to love or hate pretty well. Even the names are interesting. As a fan of Roman history, I really enjoy when names like Caesar, Flavius, Claudius, Portia, Cinna, Seneca, Coriolanus etc. appear. (Yeah, there are A LOT of Roman names.)

So, if you have not read the books, you really should. I think that the books really do deserve the attention they get. I remember that I read Mockingjay in one day, then re-read it a few hours later.

I know for a fact that I’m going to be at the movie release, and any Hunger Games fans out there owe it to themselves to be there, too.