Bonnie Alba
'Hunger Games' - - One possible future for America?
By Bonnie Alba
Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others. — Winston Churchill
Author Suzanne Collins gave special acknowledgment to her late father Michael Collins, who "...had a deep commitment to educating his children on war and peace."
Written by Collins for teens, the first movie of the trilogy, "The Hunger Games" is attracting many adults. Adults are now reading the series; I know of at least five friends who are reading the trilogy right now.
Adults are attracted for several reasons, but two in particular; first, there are many levels and themes carried throughout the story and second, the story speaks to the uncertainty in the hearts of "We the People" in post-modern America.
The story is of a Post-America, destroyed 75 years ago, now under a dictatorship (President Snow) in the Capitol called Panem, the New America. Surrounding the Capitol, like spokes of a wheel, are the 12 Districts (the 13th district supposedly nuked and off limits).
The heroine, Katniss, lives in the poorest 12th district. The main industry is mining and the people suffer constantly from starvation and scrounging for the next meal. Her father killed in a mining accident leaves Katniss as main support of her mother and younger sister.
Childhood friend Gale taught her to use bow 'n arrow to hunt for small game in the off-limits woods beyond the sometimes electrified fence, killing and providing food for her family while selling/exchanging game to local people.
The Capitol developed the "Hunger Games" by enacting a "reaping" once a year of all 12 to 18 year olds — selected by drawing, one boy and one girl from each district (24 young people) to participate in the annual survival Game in which only one will survive.
When Katniss' 12-year-old sister Prim's name is drawn, Katniss immediately traded places with her.
Possibly many adults are attracted to this teen story due to present-day fears of a government run amok. They may well ask "Where is our country headed? to something like the Hunger Games?"
Our present-day country is torn by divisions, class warfare, charges of racism, islamic threats, a president who rules by executive order, a congress divided yet clinging to elitism, a supreme court actively changing our laws; all departing from the U.S. Constitution. We consist of a national people no longer educated in U.S. History under God. "We the people" are uneasy at the least and tense to the point of rebellion at the extreme.
We live in an unreal, technological environment where entertainment dispels any serious thoughts of what is going on in the rest of the world and deletes the true history of our nation. The nightly news is anything but true or factual, and exploits non-essentials while ignoring the state of our nation and people.
Christians will note there is no God in this story. There is only man (dictator) and the State (God). But they should read the book(s), if for no other reason than to learn one direction our nation may go, where God, our Creator, has been eliminated. His Creation lives on not knowing they were created by Him (in His image), yet the character qualities of courage, sacrifice, boldness, humility that God placed in our hearts lives on. Yes, right and wrong, Good and Evil are in the telling.
Some terms came to mind while reading these books — The statist Capitol system set up by those we call elitists today; the New World Order; totalitarianism and marxism.
Freedom and Liberty have no place in the story yet breaks out in poignant moments.
Modern-day Americans tend to live their lives in the background of global reality — just to name a few — child sex trafficking for prostitution, exploitation of child labor, killing children because they're not the right gender, murder of children in the womb and other evils abound.
If you worry or fear for your grandchildren and future generations, this trilogy is just one future that America could be faced with in the future.
© Bonnie Alba
April 20, 2012
Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others. — Winston Churchill
Author Suzanne Collins gave special acknowledgment to her late father Michael Collins, who "...had a deep commitment to educating his children on war and peace."
Written by Collins for teens, the first movie of the trilogy, "The Hunger Games" is attracting many adults. Adults are now reading the series; I know of at least five friends who are reading the trilogy right now.
Adults are attracted for several reasons, but two in particular; first, there are many levels and themes carried throughout the story and second, the story speaks to the uncertainty in the hearts of "We the People" in post-modern America.
The story is of a Post-America, destroyed 75 years ago, now under a dictatorship (President Snow) in the Capitol called Panem, the New America. Surrounding the Capitol, like spokes of a wheel, are the 12 Districts (the 13th district supposedly nuked and off limits).
The heroine, Katniss, lives in the poorest 12th district. The main industry is mining and the people suffer constantly from starvation and scrounging for the next meal. Her father killed in a mining accident leaves Katniss as main support of her mother and younger sister.
Childhood friend Gale taught her to use bow 'n arrow to hunt for small game in the off-limits woods beyond the sometimes electrified fence, killing and providing food for her family while selling/exchanging game to local people.
The Capitol developed the "Hunger Games" by enacting a "reaping" once a year of all 12 to 18 year olds — selected by drawing, one boy and one girl from each district (24 young people) to participate in the annual survival Game in which only one will survive.
When Katniss' 12-year-old sister Prim's name is drawn, Katniss immediately traded places with her.
Possibly many adults are attracted to this teen story due to present-day fears of a government run amok. They may well ask "Where is our country headed? to something like the Hunger Games?"
Our present-day country is torn by divisions, class warfare, charges of racism, islamic threats, a president who rules by executive order, a congress divided yet clinging to elitism, a supreme court actively changing our laws; all departing from the U.S. Constitution. We consist of a national people no longer educated in U.S. History under God. "We the people" are uneasy at the least and tense to the point of rebellion at the extreme.
We live in an unreal, technological environment where entertainment dispels any serious thoughts of what is going on in the rest of the world and deletes the true history of our nation. The nightly news is anything but true or factual, and exploits non-essentials while ignoring the state of our nation and people.
Christians will note there is no God in this story. There is only man (dictator) and the State (God). But they should read the book(s), if for no other reason than to learn one direction our nation may go, where God, our Creator, has been eliminated. His Creation lives on not knowing they were created by Him (in His image), yet the character qualities of courage, sacrifice, boldness, humility that God placed in our hearts lives on. Yes, right and wrong, Good and Evil are in the telling.
Some terms came to mind while reading these books — The statist Capitol system set up by those we call elitists today; the New World Order; totalitarianism and marxism.
Freedom and Liberty have no place in the story yet breaks out in poignant moments.
Modern-day Americans tend to live their lives in the background of global reality — just to name a few — child sex trafficking for prostitution, exploitation of child labor, killing children because they're not the right gender, murder of children in the womb and other evils abound.
If you worry or fear for your grandchildren and future generations, this trilogy is just one future that America could be faced with in the future.
© Bonnie Alba
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
