“May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor” Dystopian Reality in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy

Journal Title: New Horizons in English Studies - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 1

Abstract

The research paper focuses on the dystopian reality depicted in Suzanne Collins’s the Hunger Games trilogy. I shall primarily discuss the social and political relations established in the post-apocalyptic country – Panem, and how they affect the quotidian life. Crucial here is the clash between two realms comprising the world represented in the novels – dystopian districts and the seemingly utopian Capitol. The juxtaposition of two completely different ‘constituents’ of the country shapes the mutual relations between the Panem inhabitants – these within the districts, amongst them and between the center and the peripheries. The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010) consecutively portray the history of dystopian civilization from the entropic reality succeeding after the Dark Days, through a coincidental chain of events initiated during the 74th Hunger Games, to the ultimate armed conflict bringing hope and the promise of a new beginning. Pivotal in the oppressive world is the concept of the savior in the person of Katniss Everdeen who, initially unconsciously and unintentionally, contributes to igniting the final revolt against the dictatorial regime of President Snow. The aim of the paper is to analyze how the author represents the realm of Panem with regard to the complex relations between the center and the periphery.

Authors and Affiliations

Julia Kula

Keywords

Related Articles

The Importance of the Ordinary. Moments of Being in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

“A Sketch of the Past” is an essay in which Virginia Woolf recollects her childhood memories and reflects upon certain events, while trying to understand why she remembers them and forgets others. She mentions the concep...

My City, My ‘Hood, My Street: Ghetto Spaces in American Hip-Hop Music

As a subculture created by black and Latino men and women in the late 1970s in the United States, hip-hop from the very beginning was closely related to urban environment. Undoubtedly, space has various functions in hip-...

The Image of Contemporary Society in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman’s urban fantasy novel Neverwhere revolves around some problematic aspects prevalent in the contemporary world, such as an iniquitous discrepancy between social classes or a problematic attitude to history. Th...

Metafiction in Children’s Literature and its Adaptation on Screen. The Case of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

The paper analyzes metafictional aspects of the children’s book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket as adapted in a 2017 TV series. Focusing on the metaleptic narrator and the receiver’s role in the s...

Genderlects in Polish Teenagers’ Writing

The aim of this paper is to verify several assumptions concerning genderlects on the basis of an experiment carried out with a group of Polish teenagers. We enquire whether there are any significant differences in the us...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP421774
  • DOI 10.17951/nh.2017.2.49
  • Views 137
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Julia Kula (2017). “May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor” Dystopian Reality in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy. New Horizons in English Studies, 2(1), 49-58. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-421774