Welcome to the 21st century! When telephone is cordless, communication wireless, cooking fireless, youth jobless, follies countless, conduct worthless, and politics shameless!
Welcome to planet Earth 2010! This is where you get raped at age 4 and mugged at age 7. Where you rape others at age 13, and mug others at age 13. And finally, this is the planet where you can get killed at age 13. Life is a climb but the view is great. That’s if you go straight to heaven.
What do you think will happen years from now? You’ll get the right to participate in a little game where teenagers gathered will be made over and fed, then will be delivered to an arena by a high-tech glass cylinder. In the venue, they’ll build fires anywhere, camp at night, gather at a feast, look at interesting half-breeds and talk about love. No parents. No rules. The game will be aired for the whole world to see. You’ll get famous. You’ll get money if you win. Sounds fun? Now how will you get in? Randomly. Suits the destiny freaks just fine. How will you win? Simple. Kill them before they kill you.
“Happy hunger games! May the odds be ever in your favor!”
When I read the back cover, I had thought I would be wasting my time in yet another book not worthy of the lives of a thousand trees. I was proven wrong when the words of Suzanne Collins finally got through my brains after a just a few pages. Set in a world where “dystopia” is written in bold letters on people’s foreheads, the novel gnaws the readers’ insides both because of guilt and fear. Though it’s precisely unknown what caused the “end of the world”, I’m guessing the altered landmasses and bigger water territories hinted an environmental tragedy. I prefer to call it “The Environment’s Wrath”. It must have been a reference to present issues regarding climate change and how we, earthlings, are at the driver seat of this highly-industrialized planet earth ready to crash. It’s either we swerve and change our ways, or we refuse to and bang head first to our future which is most likely “Panem”.
In the novel, Panem is the remains of North America, surrounded by 13 Districts. Despite the circumstances, I paused for a while and admired Collin’s high expectations of human ingenuity even in the brink of extinction. The author seems confident that humans will always find ways to live.
Aside from survival instincts, there’s also this nagging will to not just survive but survive and win. The humans’ definition of winning is perhaps not another generation of using jaded rocks as knives and leaves as mini-skirts, but a toilet with many buttons just so you will not have to move more than a few inches while taking a bubble bath. I don’t think the idea of humans still being that civilized a couple of years after “The Environment’s Wrath” is very plausible. After I had a glimpse of the Capitol (the main part of Panem), I told myself, “Aaahh… so this is where fiction is most prominent.” I was nodding my head in approval as I imagined District 12 and it’s obviously not decent environmental aura. Come on! Earth just had most of its resources gone. I didn’t like the idea of a super civilized country after “The Environment’s Wrath”. I’m not saying I advise Collins to write about realistic stuff. Number one. I’m not a genius writer. Number two. I’m not a genius writer. It’s just that, it’s my nature to hate situations wherein the kidnappers get the ransom then almost literally fly away from the policemen. The humans are the perpetrators of this tragedy, and then humans still get to live comfortably after the earth’s already scarred face is more scarred than ever before. How unfair is unfair? Really!
Another thing that I observed is still very prominent after “The Environment’s Wrath” is the government’s more-ridiculous-than-ever way of handling their countrymen. Seriously, is it really not possible for abusers of power to be extinct even just for one generation? It haunts me to think that if it becomes possible to level up a human being’s survival instincts in the face of a big environmental tragedy, then it will be very, very easy to upgrade the means of torturing others just for the hell of it. It’s proven that doing a good deed is like chewing leather, and a bad deed like chewing candy, chocolate-flavored. In the novel, Capitol intentionally obliterated District 13. I’m thinking of two reasons why they did it. One, to show others that they’re so powerful they can turn a whole district, together with its inhabitants, into ashes when they get bored. Two, District 13 is a threat. A major threat. Mining isn’t their principal industry. Unbeknownst to most people, they used to develop nuclear-and-fission-based technology. Naturally, our little friends from the Capitol got shivers at the thought of being robbed of their crown. For the sake of power, people go berserk. I don’t like to admit this, but it seems to be human nature. To remind everyone of its power, the Capitol asks for two tributes every year to be thrown into an arena to kill each other. I was reminded of Theseus’ story when I learned that.
Ridiculous as this may seem, Collins didn’t forget to include “Hollywood fashion obsession” and “monstrous television influence” in the Hunger Games. Just before the tributes risk their necks, they are presented to people in order to gain sponsors. I was laughing when I read that they needed sponsors. Sponsors! I had to read it several times just to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. I was reminded forcibly of Pinoy Big Brother because they need to stand out in order to gain public’s approval. But unlike the housemates, they need approval to live. They also have a team consists of fashion designers, make-up artists and the like. They are adorned with the most beautiful clothes and they indulged in the finest delicacies like prisoners getting ready to be electrocuted. Okay. Is there any other country better-natured than Capitol?
In every population, there’s a rarity. Don’t expect everybody to wail because District 11’s little girl is on the battlefield. I don’t know what to make of the Career Districts’ (Districts 1, 2 and 4 are part of this) view on things. They are those who actually see the Hunger Games as a game. They train for it. They volunteer for it. They take pride on being thrown somewhere to kill or be killed. I view their actions as forever acceptance of defeat. They just went with the flow. Whatever the Capitol likes to happen, they submit themselves wholeheartedly. It’s either that, or they’re desperate for the provisions the Capitol gives to the District of the winners. I’m guessing that the other districts, aside from taking pity on teenagers on the arena, are actually still hopeful for change. District 12 is a fine example. The inhabitants mourn for the tributes. They can’t afford to put on happy faces because deep inside, they know this won’t last. I think they don’t like to train themselves into thinking that killing for entertainment is normal. They are actually braver than those Career Districts.
I like the names of the characters. They say a lot. Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire actually goes against President Snow. The plant after she is named was used as an arrowhead by Native American Indians. She is with another tribute called Peeta Mellark, a baker’s son. I wonder if they bake pita. Rue’s name (a tribute that Katniss befriended) doesn’t only mean to repent. It is actually a medicinal herb that heals eyestrain. Rues can make you see well. Rue’s death actually makes Katniss see how her decision to rebel against the oppressive Capitol can possibly help. I find Katniss stupid for being confused at what she really feels and realizing too late what sort of mission is put over her shoulders. It always happens, not only in fiction, but also in real life. Sometimes, you’ll need to sacrifice something or someone in order to realize things. You’ll think that there are enough movies and novels that focused on a character whose personal change will greatly affect the humanity’s future. But no, it’s never enough. Harry Potter needed his parents’ deaths. Jose Rizal needed to see Filipinos subjected to slavery. As corny as this may sound, it’s reality. What do you think of heroes? Impulsive beings that decided on the spot they’d take bullets for their countrymen? No. Then and now, and surely in the future, a person changes painstakingly gradually to achieve just enough personal transformation in order to change the future.
Hunger Games caught me off guard. I didn’t realize that I’d actually fall in love with its post-dystopia setting. I used to hate it. My Homo sapiens pride and obstinacy just couldn’t take the idea that we might be overpowered by things we take for granted. Honestly speaking, this novel attracted me first because of violence. I’d actually love to see how the tributes work out strategies to kill each other. In a place where you can trust no one, I want to know how Collins will write about the thing I dread the most… fear. I got curious of how well she can actually make me feel that I am at the arena with the other tributes watching me and preparing to stab me in the blink of an eye. Let me put this bluntly, she did not succeed. I kept comparing her to Stephen King and JK Rowling. Two authors who actually used magnets to glue my undivided attention to fight scenes that the rest of the world’s writers failed to do. The thing that kept me reading, aside from the themes that were beautifully and carefully placed between the lines, was the right dose of love story. To just slip out very rare romance thingy kept me hungry for more. Team Peeta or Team Gale? I haven’t decided yet. I’ll grab a copy of Catching Fire and hope more of Gale. I recommend the Hunger Games. Bloodthirsty. Trust me. Oops, on second thought, don’t. I might be one of the tributes from a Career District. Happy Hunger Games!
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