[Movie] The Hunger Games - Page 29

It is clear from the end of the third book, that had Coin remained in power, the cycle of murder (hunger games) would continue in one way or another, which would have led to another trilogy using different characters and the same outcome. The message here was that we can't use the same methods hoping for different results. Eventually, if we drop enough bombs, we become the villains. Katniss recognized this (or maybe she knew it intuitively, who knows) but she stopped the cycle which would keep humanity never far away from another war.

The idea behind the books was that rebellion follows acts that are deemed immoral by the world, regardless of how they are presented. Even if people are too afraid to show it, they will eventually be pushed over the edge if they are being oppressed and seek to overthrow. Assuming they are successful, history has dictated that many of the victors do just as evil things to the people they have conquered. We try to downplay this, nor has there been no atrocity as big as the Holocaust, but it still happens.

Alright, now that that premise of the book is done, we move on to what the movie portrays in "the Hunger Games," which is that of rebelling from the district in which Rue comes. I suppose this can be attributed to the lack of 3rd person narrative, but still the movie shows rebellion much better than the book does. The book doesn't even mention a rebellion until the very end (post-victory), and that is subtly hinted at in a foreshadowing approach. So from the perspective of the author, I believe the case can be made that it is a stronger writing style to escalate the situation between rebels and capital. But the movie makes the intentions much clearer, which is why I believe there is a better case for it (minor differences aside, some of which did annoy me)

I don't think thats what the books end with. They show that rebellion against tyranny and oppression is often replaced by different tyranny and oppression (to wit. Animal Farm). Infact though Coin is now dead, there will still be oppression of the capitol, just perhaps a tad less sadistic. Katniss realized that the new boss was no different than the old boss.

Another idea that I think the books raised was the even when you are brtually oppressed its very difficult to muster the courage to rebel. It takes a central figurehead, someone who defies expectations to start a successful revolution. You need someone to start the fire (quite literally the girl/boy on fire). Real news mirrors this: Without Bouazazi there would be no Arab Spring. Incidentally Arab spring shows another part of the books coming through: The old dictators are just replaced by new dictators. There has been significant upheavel but no real change.