Appalachia Project: The Hunger Games, 2008

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

I stand by the words I wrote in an earlier review of The Hunger Games: "Hunger Games reads hard and fast. By hard, I don't mean 'difficult to comprehend.' I mean that the blows just keep coming as thick and fast as the pages keep turning." How does this book qualify as an Appalachian novel? Collins clearly states that District 12, from which the heroine, Katniss, competes, was known in former times as West Virginia. (The central government, the Capitol, is set in the Rockies, perhaps Colorado.) West Virginia is the only state placed entirely within the Appalachian region.

The book also qualifies through its description of the remoteness and poverty of the region. Coal mining and starvation are the most common causes of death there. Katniss lives with her mother and little sister. Her father was killed in a mining explosion. Because mom has fallen into deep depression, Katniss, as an adolescent, becomes responsible for keeping her family going--specifically for providing food and necessities.

Katniss is seen as "of the land" in the book. She has lived the Hunger Games in real life; she has had to survive by her own wits through hiding, subterfuge, and lawlessness. She hunts with bow and snares and gathers edible plants in the remnants of the Blue Ridge, illegally outside the boundaries of her district. This landscape, flora, and fauna is familiar to any of us who live here.

Collins pulls us into a post-apocalyptic world in which order is maintained through a cruel parody of the Olympics--the Hunger Games. The games demonstrate the power of the central government over the provinces. All residents of the country are forced to watch as 24 contestants--two from each district (or state) battle to the death in an arena as rigged against all of them as they are against each other. Katniss and the other District 12 tribute, Peeta (and I, as a reader), are then swept up in the games--a gruesome contest of wit, strength, cunning, and survival.

This is how District 12 looks in the movie.

Katniss also reflects the Appalachian tradition of resistance to authority. Her self-sacrifices capture the imagination of an oppressed people. She harkens back to earlier days in many of her actions, including by wearing the mockingjay pin that is so associated with the franchise. The pin is a symbol of a time before the central government got full control of the districts. They sent mutated birds into the districts that could repeat conversations verbatim. The local people fed false information to the capital in this way. The birds ended up mating with local birds to evolve into the mockingjay, a bird that can repeat any song that it hears. The mockingjay, a hybrid product of technology and nature, beautifully sums up many of the themes of the book. Katniss is the mockingjay.

My conclusion from my previous review still stands. "I thank Collins for writing such a good female character--one who is brave, strong, smart, and skilled without being unrealistic. Katniss is not a super-hero. She even has braids like Pippi Longstocking, my gold standard for heroines. However, Katniss doesn't have to be comic to be strong, a hayseed to be smart. I am in love with her and want to adopt her as my daughter and nurture her courage and help her grow up and out into a wide, wide world. Our world needs girls like this and people to nurture them."

Old Mulkey Meetinghouse in Thompkinsville, KY, where
I visited recently. Church build in 1804.

Collins beautifully weaves the past into the present in this book, which I seemed to notice and appreciate more in this listening-to of the book. Every flashback is spot on and immediately relevant. I listened to an audio version of The Hunger Games on a recent trip to Kentucky. I have now read the book once, seen the movie once, and heard the book once. The story continues to excite me and hold my attention. The audio book drew me in completely, a real tribute to Collins's writing and compelling story. Not a word out of place.

This book has captured my heart. Again.