I LOVE the Hunger Games. Seriously, it was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I love to root for the underdog to overcome his or her challenge. Katniss, the protagonist, has to overcome a lot of difficult situations. Katniss lives in a futuristic America where there are 12 districts instead of 50 states. Katniss is from District 12 where she has to secretly hunt in order to put food on the table for her family. She is lives in the region known as Applachia [southern PA, WV, TN, KY and northern GA]. My dad's family lives in this region and Katniss's attitude reminds me a lot of my Grandmother. My father grow up really poor in a trailer where both of his parents barely scraped by. Anyways, back to the book. The Hunger Games is a competition with 24 teenagers (two from each district). 24 enter, 23 are killed in the process, 1 is the winner. Katniss's sister is selected to play so Katniss makes the ultimate sacrifire in taking her spot. The Applachia philosophy of clan roots, where you sacrifire everything for family, comes out in Katniss. In order to win the games, you have to be able to outsmart and look better than other players. Katniss receives sponsors by appealing to voters. She has to go through lots of stylists to dolly her up. She has trainers to tell her how to behave and how to talk. During the game, she is forced to form an alliance with Peetra. He claims that he is in love with her and there are many points of the book where it is confusing if this is true or strategy.
I think that this book would be excellent to use in the classroom. An activity I would use is having students read the book and study reality tv shows. I noticed that as I was reading, this book reminded me of the reality tv shows like Amazing Race and Survivor. I would have my students pick from a selection of reality tv shows that they are required to watch each week. As they are watching, I would have them jot down notes on characteristics that match up with the Hunger Games. After gathering this information, I would have the students write a short paper on comparing the reality shows with The Hunger Games. Another activity would be to research about stereotypes. The 12 different regions are based upon the economy of the region (District 12=coal mining). It would be interesting to explain to the students the history of each of the regions and why they are known for a particular resource.
I think using reality shows with The Hunger Games is smart. Plus, by the time we're all teaching, they will probably have even more shows to choose from! Good idea.
ReplyDelete" I noticed that as I was reading, this book reminded me of the reality tv shows like Amazing Race and Survivor."
ReplyDeleteYou're exactly right. I believe that comparing the Hunger Games to these types of shows will be really beneficial to the students because it brings it to their level. I think that sometimes students don't understand novels because they are far too distant from the ideas the author wants us to understand. Good Idea!
I, too, like the idea of comparing "The Hunger Games" to reality television shows. It's such a great comparison! I also think a comparison would work between the Olympics and the hunger games that occur within the novel.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when you said about your family being from Applachia -- you were building a personal connection to the novel. With this connection, you could help your students make their own connections or have them learn about Applachia. Both are great assets to teaching this novel.
I never read this book, but I'm intrigued after reading your brief summary. Is the book making a correlation to modern day America in terms of willing to sacrifice a lot just in order to survive/be the top spot? If so, it reminds me a lot of the book, Valley of the Dolls, where young girls with Hollywood potential see how crushing the stardom can be for one's pursuit of it with all the pressure to constantly look good,dress expensively, and always appear at ease, which entails eating disorders, using pills to cope, alcohol, false relationships, etc. Moral of the story seems to be that with stardom comes its consequences that can easily chew you up and spit you out like nothing.
ReplyDeleteWow, this book sounds so interesting! And I love your idea of connecting it to reality TV shows. The relation to pop culture/media would definitely engage students.
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