I read The Hunger Games 2 years ago, while on a flight to Wyoming. I was so enthralled that I couldn't stop reading but I didn't want the story to end. I loved the complexity of the characters and the tension of the story.
My husband always talks about the day when society will fall apart, and how I'm far too soft to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. I don't like to be outside. I hate bugs and snakes. My eyesight is abysmal. I don't like to eat game. I am allergic to everything. I burn when I spend any time in the sun. I refuse to camp. In other words, Katniss would be almost exactly my opposite. However, I am quite good at flying below the radar, so I might have a chance in The Hunger Games.
There were several things I wondered about the story, but I think the largest question I had was: How did people end up in the various Districts...especially those who lived in the Capital? Was it simply locational? Was it socio-economic? Was it plain old luck? What do you think?
I assume that there was money involved for the residents of the Capital, but everyone else just got stuck where they grew up. But that theory doesn't necessarily make sense in terms of a war.
The Hunger Games is the best of the trilogy (well, according to me, anyway), but Catching Fire and Mockingjay are also well worth reading.
After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for The Hunger Games. You can get your own copy of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins at bookstores including Amazon.
I guess I am the only one who has not read it yet.
ReplyDeleteIt is on my reading list. Someday, I will.
I hate bugs and snakes. The latter scare me. But I possibly a broader 'eater' than you. Oh, and I horrible on escaping the radar. I have yet to learn the life skill called being low-profile.
I'm thinking that the districts were aligned by economy. The Appalachian district is heavy into mining so District 12 became the mining district. I presume the Midwest is the more agrarian community, etc. There isn't that much information provided as to how large a district is, so I can only presume that the districts probably consists of 3 or 4 states at best. Presumably the Capital isn't a district per se and is similar to Washington DC, and the seat of the government of Panem.
ReplyDeleteI figured they just divided people based on where they already lived and then people grew up there.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think the districts were divided up (anyone else note the symmetry of the 13 districts vs the 13 original United States??) & whoever was living there at the time was basically stuck there.
ReplyDeleteI too thought about how poorly I'd do in the Hunger Games. Can you imagine the noise I'd make if I saw a cricket?
ReplyDeleteI assumed that it was luck of the draw as to where you were born, and there was little empathy for others who were not lucky to be born into a "good" district. But we also only know about the districts from Katniss, so the reality of life in those districts may be very different from what she assumes. Maybe people she thinks are miserable are actually happy. Or vice versa.
Aha! Me too, totally and completely dead if civilisation ends. I must read this though. I like contemplating it, in a strictly theoretical way.
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