Debate of the Day: Is The Hunger Games Really “Young Adult”?
I’ve seen a bit of debate going on back and forth about The Hunger Games, and so I thought I’d make it an ACTUAL debate question of the day. The issue seems to be some people dismissing it as either A) the next Twilight or B) a Battle Royale rip-off, and the counterpoint is that no, neither of these things are true, and this is a unique and interesting universe.
I’m somewhere in the middle. There are definitely attempts at making the book appeal to the “young adult” crowd, an attempt which succeeds judging by the series’ massive popularity. But it’s far from Twilight. The love triangle is an afterthought, and is hardly the focus of the books. I think it’s actually the weakest angle of the series, but there are a bunch of girls going to see tonight’s film in “Team Peeta” or “Team Gale” shirts that would disagree.
As for being a Battle Royale rip-off? There are certainly similar elements, but remember that before Battle Royale, there was Lord of the Flies, and so on and so forth. All art is usually inspired by something else, either consciously or unconsciously. And the violence in these books is rather brutal, and had it not been obviously toned down, these movies would certainly be R-rated.
So, which side do you fall on?
I’d say the movie(not the book) is aimed at younger than young adults due to the fact that you can only see two deaths on camera due to the shakiness of the filming. If they had aimed it at young adults (18+) it would have been rated R.
It is YA. The protagonist is a young adult with a young adult’s muddled and confused view on the situation around her. I would have loved to see an adult version of HG because the hybrid totalitarian/feudal system she created was very interesting. It’s a tragedy that the Katniss is the POV character as she is one of the least interesting to me. Especially the books go on.
Oh and not a Battle Royale ripoff in the least. (Though Battle Royale is better)
I think the saddest thing here is young adult novels are expected to have some deep love triangle and tragic supernatural lover to be considered as part of the genre. I’m glad I just managed to miss that stage because the books aimed at kids these days for the most part seem boring as hell.
Back to the point however, I read the hunger games when I was about 16 and I think they were perfectly aimed at my age at that time. They’re certainly not adult books but the violence means they wouldn’t be suitable for young children. My favourite part regarding the love triangle is the fact it seemed throughout that it was mostly Peeta and Gale who were concerned over it, Katniss was more concerned about staying alive and had no issues using people to achieve that, I liked her power.
The slightly awkward moment when you realise you’re posting under the name of Gale
that’s actually unrelated to the hunger games, don’t want to come across as a crazy fangirl
Lord of the Flies – Kids are stranded on an island and do what they must/can to survive..
Battle Royale – Kids are chosen in a lottery to be placed in a game where they must battle to the death. (with guns)
Hunger Games – Kids are chosen to be placed in a game where they must battle to the death.. (without guns)
I think there is a big difference from BR sourcing LotF and HG sourcing BR..
I haven’t read the books but from what I’ve heard it’s more like
45% Battle Royale
45% The Running Man, the book, not the movie
10% Grrrrl Power
@Mandy
Was going to say the same thing. My thoughts exactly.
I read the books and enjoyed them. The moment I wanted to movies to fail was when I saw the screaming HG fans/kids waiting for their first glimpses of the movie. HG is not a young screaming fans kind of series, at least not to me.
I keep teasing my best friend who recommended the book to me as this being a chick flick. That the romance part was unnecessary and distracting. She knows I enjoyed reading it, though :P, and can just call me a typical boy who only wants a helpless damsel character.
Its more like Star Wars meets Joan of Arc. Twilight is all about Bella trying to figure out who to be with, while Paul was right, its just an afterthought in the Hunger Games. The stakes are so high, and Katniss never really embraces any feelings of true love besides what she feels for her family. The second book touches on this and complicates it more, but ultimately the story revolves around the influence that one act of defiance can have on a downtrodden people.
Peeta is one likeable guy ill tell you that much. I also find it cool that the district 12 people are from Appalachia and they found two people from Kentucky to play the part.
I’m 27 and my wife is 26. We both love the trilogy and saw the film last night (brilliant!!!). I wouldn’t class this as YA, in the same way I don’t think the Eragon/Inheritance Cycle should be classed as YA.
Hunger Games is very well written and avoids the plot holes usually associated with work specifically aimed at a young audience (e.g incredible leaps in logic in the first few Harry Potter books that lessen as as series matures).
Collins touches on themes that any age can relate to and care about. I read an article on the Guardian website of a harrowing tale of someone who grew up in North Korean prisons (http://tinyurl.com/7ycnc5m) and the kind of desperation was very reminiscent of HG – definitely not just a Young Adult theme.
I also like the love triangle as it’s a nice counter point to the horrible feminism destroying subservient relationship Bella has in Twilight. In HG Katnis isn’t shown as a weak character fawning after the man; as Gale above mentions- its actually the men who are much more affected and disempowered by their feelings.
The merchandising and hype surrounding this movie is truly awful. “Team (whoever)”? Really? The series is over – we already know what happens. This team nonsense is juvenile shite, spilled over from the success of the Twilight series. It’s marketers trying to capitalize on young girls who don’t know their heads from their asses. This isn’t a love story, it’s a bitter struggle for survival (and the love story is fabricated, and part of that struggle for survival.)
It saddens me to think that you’ll only see 2 deaths in the movie – if I’m not mistaken, you can easily see 10 during the books, and that’s part of the allure – it’s visceral, it’s real. I fear they hollywoodized the books and pg-13’d it so that more people can see the movie. Feels bad man.
Haven’t read it, ain’t gonna. One thing I can tell you is that there was a lengthy article in the newspaper about it that placed it at the end of a little “chronology” of teen literary crazes that included The Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High, and yes, Twilight among others. So you’ll excuse me if I let yet another bandwagon full of semi-literate people who’ve never read a book unless it was “the new big thing” pass me on by. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Frankenstein, Paradise Lost, and plenty of other amazing reads are free for Kindle on Amazon. Just saying.
Saying that a book isn’t bad doesn’t make it not YA.
Saw the movie as a rip-off of Battle Royale and Running Man… with lots of cheap fanservice.
It’s OK but I had much higher hopes for the movie, it was never a hint of “social commentary” or even saracasm or something against the “movie world”. It just told the story, it took itself immensly serious.
@JuanSolo: same impressions here.
@trashcanman
Just because something is the “new big thing” doesn’t make it bad. Just like how saying you’ve read something old doesn’t make you seem cultured.
@Trashcanman
Haven’t read that ‘article’, ain’t gonna.
So over dinner I was talking to a ‘random guy’ and he said that the ‘article’ was full of crap. If ‘random guy’ said its crap it must be true.
Now, I’ll not bother to read the ‘article’ myself but i am going to send that ‘article’ a comment, in which i’ll share my pointless and uninformed opinion.
Think don’t speak, just think!
I don’t wanna see it because it is toned down
Saw HG last night, and although I have never read the books or seen much of the marketing, I really enjoyed it. Definite similarities to Battle Royal, but different enough to still be enjoyable.
Not sure what people are on about with only seeing 2 deaths on screen… I saw heaps. At least two broken necks, arrows, spears, bees, etc. Sure it wasn’t gory and in your face, but its still children so I understand their need for a lesser violent film style.
Sure they marketed it to Tweens, but out of all the tween movies to come out that have been obvious sequel set-ups (e.g. Percy Jackson, I am number 4, etc…) this has been one of the better ones.
While I loved all three books, I worry that the themes of these books may be lost on a young adult audience. At first reading, Katniss did seem to be a feminist and young adult icon, fighting a worthy fight against injustice. On second reading, she’s seriously flawed. Not just character-realness flawed, but PTSD, revenge-personified flawed. She votes for another hunger games – she becomes like those she fought to destroy. Her need for a personal vendetta against Snow causes her to be responsible for nearly her entire team’s death (their fight to the Capital was a total failure, accomplishing nothing). Her story is not about Katniss the hero, it’s about Katniss the cautionary tale. She’s not evil, but she is young, undeveloped, callous and dangerously impulsive . . . and she’s been given too much power. She is a warning about the dangers of creating an icon, showcasing how much damage someone made up as a Mockingjay can do. Katniss, in her teenage ignorance, is a victim of the system that created her (both Snow and Coin’s). As for whether that speaks to a young adult audience, I’m not sure it does, as there’s no real message or life lesson invoked in the book. It’s a fascinating, dark, and ultimately tragic tale of a mad, vengeful, isolated, confused young girl on a voyage of both self- and social- destruction.