The Hunger Games

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

                                                     Series Book – The Hunger Games

  

Exposition (the beginning of the story, establishment of setting and characters):  Katniss Everdeen, her sister Prim, and her mother live in District 12 (formerly Appalachia) of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of North America after multiple natural disasters, and they are all dreading the upcoming Reaping, where one boy and one girl are chosen to represent District 12 and fight to the death in the annual Hunger Games, the Capitol’s reminder to the districts not to uprise against them and that they are totally at the Capitol’s mercy.

Conflict (the problem(s) faced by the characters):  After Katniss’s younger sister Prim is chosen as the girl to represent District 12 in the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers as tribute, and she and her fellow District 12 representative, Peeta Mellark, are forced to play the games and survive without losing themselves in the process.

Rising Action (events in the story leading up to the climax):  Katniss and Peeta endure many trials while in the arena, from dehydration and starvation, to flying fireballs, to trackerjacker stings, to being stabbed by another tribute, to infections, to having a friend murdered by another tribute, to eventually undergoing an attack by the other tributes who have been made into muttations; though in the beginning Katniss and Peeta think they will eventually have to kill the other because only one person can win the Hunger Games, they are pleasantly surprised by a twist in the games, allowing both people from one district to win, most likely due to the Capitol’s interest in Peeta and Katniss’ supposed romance.

Climax (the culmination of events in the story, point of highest reader interest):  Katniss thinks that the climax of the Hunger Games is when Cato, the last remaining tribute in the arena, falls off of the Cornucopia and the muttations attack him, but the real climax of the story is when Peeta and Katniss place the nightlock berries in their mouths in order to kill themselves so that there is no victor because the Capitol has taken away the twist to the Games at the last minute; because there has to be a winner, the trumpets sound and Claudius Templesmith yells for them to stop and declares them both the victors of the seventy-fourth Hunger Games.

Falling Action (events leading to the solving of the story’s problems):  A hovercraft immediately picks them up, and they are both taken to the training center where they are healed of their injuries and made to look better than new; while at their winning ceremony, Haymitch informs Katniss that the Capitol is angry with her for making them the joke of Panem and that they have to continue the romance charade so that the Capitol believes their acts were out of love and will not hold them responsible for their actions.

Resolution (how events and problems of the story are solved): There is not really a resolution to this story as Katniss senses that danger is ahead and tries to convincingly act as if she is in love with Peeta, but she is confused by her feelings and thinks that Peeta may really be in love with her and not acting at all; the reader is left with the sense at the end of the book that the story is not finished and another book is in store (which, of course, there is).

Chapter books only (List two strong literary qualities displayed in the book and write one sentence about each quality): Suzanne Collins first uses plot to drag the reader into the story as it contains one exciting event after the other, making the reader want to continue to read each chapter so he/she can find out what else is going to happen.  Collins also employs the literary quality of character by presenting Katniss in a very real and believable way; the reader cannot help but feel sorry for Katniss and her situation and through every struggle is rooting for her to win.