So I watched the hunger games over
the weekend. I must admit, my main purpose for seeing it was to determine if
they managed to commercialize a theme that I felt was most predominant in the
book. That is the theme of, our society
is becoming violence mongers. I thought that it would be quite ironic if
the main theme of this book was that our
society is becoming so engorged on bloodshed, only for the American populous
to go and see this movie because of the violence. I wanted to watch the people’s
motivation and reactions of seeing the movie, more than seeing the movie
itself.
I’m pretty sure most patrons that
saw that movie didn’t take the time to reflect deeply on the serious subjects
that were hinted at throughout the film. Most, if asked how the film was, would
just say, “So cool!” Yup…kids killing each other does tend to fall into the “So
cool!” category. I don’t think we have to worry as a society that we are
becoming engorged on bloodshed.
One thing that did worry me was
that the main advocates of this Hunger Games craze are girls/women between the ages
of 18-25. I feel that the main character, Katniss, is a rare, strong female
protagonist. Sadly, we don’t get that a lot in literature. I’ve actually tried
to write some of my stories from a female point of view, but so far, I’m just
not that good at it. But back to the point; I’m not sure, but I think that
having a young, strong female protagonist seems to have lent a personal engendering
to young females in our society. They connect with this story more than other
perhaps. Or, they just feel that it’s just nice to see a girl that doesn’t take
crap from even the highest of powers in government or society.
I’ve been asked my opinion on this
book and movie multiple times, and I can never fully let myself say that I
enjoyed the story. It’s a very complex answer I wish to give, but rarely do
they want to hear any answer other than, “So cool!”
I’ll give my attempt at an answer
tomorrow though. It’s a quandary I’ve been mulling over for some time now, and
it would be nice to get it off my chest.
Interesting that you should post this, I went to see The Hunger Games the weekend before last. I was rather reluctant to see it, after all I'd heard about children murdering each other - it sounded rather morbid.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing it I was even more concerned, it seems to be a copy of our world, yet even more messed up - perhaps a vision of what's coming? A system where the poor are kept in camps where they are kept on the brink of starvation, while the people of the capitol seem to lack nothing. [i haven't read the books so I am not sure if there are extra details that the movie left out.]
Gore and violence aside [though it's a worry that we've become so desensitized that people would call such mindless brutality "cool"], I saw it as a form of indoctrination, a world ruled by fear is what we are slipping into, and it is almost as if we are being brainwashed through every medium into accepting it. a world where the poor get poorer, the middle class disappears, and the rich get richer.
Great comment, very thoughtful. I think that is one reason this book is pretty popular right now. It does hit, intentional or not, on a lot of important topics.
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