Chiappetta 1

Youthful Impressions: How the Youthful Narration of The Hunger Games Contributes to
the Dystopian Nature of the Novel

Mary Chiappetta

ENGL 4315
Dr. Stein
May 10, 2014

Chiappetta 2
Youthful Impressions: How the Youthful Narration of The Hunger Games Contributes to
the Dystopian Nature of the Novel
I neatly arrange my supplies, even settle my pack on my shoulders, but cant
seem to leave. I spot some water plants with edible roots and make a small meal sip
water. Watch the sun make its slow arc across the sky. Where would I go anywhere that is
safer than here? If the careers want me, let them find melet them find me (p. 180).
Through these words of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen we come into contact with the
spirit of darkness, despair, and injustice that is a hallmark of the recent and popular
dystopian novel, The Hunger Games. Yet, the significance of these words runs far more
deeply than that contained in forwarding the dramatic experiences entailed in the story.
These words, in conjunction with the overall narrative style found within The Hunger
Games, provide a glimpse into the relationship that exists between the narrative style and
the dystopian nature of the novel. Even in the brief excerpt referenced above, several
narrative characteristics become immediately evident. In particular, the immediacy
incumbent upon present tense narration, the simple and straightforward style, and the first
person narration proceeding directly from the mind of a 16-year-old youth invest the
events and dystopian features described throughout the novel with greater emotional
impact and, thus, elicit a more deep and vibrant emotional and mental response.
Furthermore, these elements work to appeal to a younger target audience than that
typically associated with classic dystopian fiction. In this sense the novel could serve as a
gateway by which the younger generation is introduced to this genre, while
simultaneously appealing in a broader and cross-generational sense because of the
universal themes that form the foundation of this dystopian work.

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Due to the recent publication of this novel in 2008, critical scholarship is limited
and scarce. That which does exist at this point is predominantly geared towards
incorporating the lessons gleaned from the novel into the classroom setting. Essentially, it
theorizes ways in which the dystopian nature of the novel can be exploited to serve the
cause of social justice. One such article, Entering The Arena: The Figured Worlds
Transition Of Preservice Teachers, published in the field of social work by author Amber
Simmons seeks to relate the experiences of Katniss and the other Hunger Games tributes
as they prepare to step off of their protective podiums into the blood bath of the games to
the experience of social workers as they prepare to leave the training oriented classroom
environment and emerge into the actual practice of social work. In this article she
suggests that The Hunger Games be used as a tool both to prepare these students to tackle
the challenges of their new environments and to engage them in the literacy of their
discipline. Her theory in this regard is based on the concept that figured worlds
(Saunders & Ash n.p) feature aspects relevant to classic dystopian fiction, such as
participants who either willingly or forcibly are made to enter socially constructed
realms. These realms might be the party in Orwells 1984, the arena in the Hunger
Games, or the fieldwork of the social worker. As a result of these parallels, Simmons
suggests that coursework for those studying social work be laid out to reflect the elements
present in the Hunger Games as a means of prompting discourse and active engagement
on the part of students (Saunders & Ash).
Similarly, a second article in this vein, "Class On Fire: Using The Hunger Games
Trilogy To Encourage Social Action" published by Amber Simmons theorizes the impact
of utilizing popular literature to engage students in social action. In contrast to the

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previous theory of mimicking Hunger Games occurrences as a means of training,
however, this article examined the effect of using the novel directly to spark discussions
on the social justice issues of violence, domination, and injustice. The goal of employing
a novel such as the Hunger Games in this context is to re-sensitize students to the real life
horrors of violence and injustice, a goal that Hunger Games Suzanne Collins herself
recommends (Blasingame 2009). The novel, in this context, has the potential to foster
literacy through relation to actual real world issues, and has particular efficacy in
equipping students with the critical literacy that is so essential to self-expression and
analysis of life situations. According to the article, the novel in this context becomes a
catalyst between critical literacy and social action, and as such it re-awakens young
people to the need for appropriate responses to the injustices of hunger, slavery, violence,
and other present day social issues.
This concludes the critical scholarship available up to this point. The area that I
will explore is therefore new to the field of criticism pertaining to this work. Others have
heretofore touched on elements relating to the dystopian nature of the book, but none
have yet focused entirely on how the various elements contribute to the dystopian nature
of the novel. This is therefore the subject of my inquiry. How does the point of view from
which The Hunger Games is told impact and establish the dystopian nature of the work?
The answer to this question is evident throughout the novel. Prior to embarking on
this description, however, it is important to note the gradual transformation that occurs
throughout the novels. Because the story unravels from the perspective of a teenager, the
narrative style and thought processes by which Katniss responds and recounts the tale
develop gradually over time. As an audience we have the opportunity to grow with her, as

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it were, tracing her maturity and development as she proceeds through the horrors that
make up the content of this dystopia. It is this factor that sets The Hunger Games apart as
a unique contribution to the dystopian genre. Through this novel we have the opportunity
to experience a dystopian society through the eyes of a child maturing under these
circumstances. The perspective from which the novel is narrated is therefore crucial to its
nature as an example of dystopian fiction. Just as the story itself emerges from the
perspective of her young mind, Katniss is a product of her dystopian surroundings. Her
perspective and personality, shaped by the dystopia in which she is growing to maturity
throughout the novels, lends a crucial and unique voice to the establishment of this novel
as dystopian fiction.
There are three primary means by which the dystopian nature of the novel is
established through the point of view by which it is told. Namely, this theme is evident
through Katniss focus on the hunger that characterized her childhood, her personality as
it is expressed through the impressions that she gives of her own experiences, and her
adolescent thought processes or, more significantly (and as is oft the case in the teenage
years), lack thereof.
These latter two instances of perspective work in conjunction with one another to
render the work dystopian in both the immediacy by which the story is told and the
almost childlike reactions, childlike in nature but tempered by the maturity of adult
cynicism, with which she responds to the ever-changing horrors of her situation. The
situation in which she finds herself is, indeed, a grim one. Thrust involuntarily into the
atrocity of the Hunger Games by issue of the lottery style reaping, yet voluntarily in order
to save her little sister who was chosen first from certain death in the arena, Katniss

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finds herself an integral participant in a particularly gruesome and horrific gladiator style
reality competition. The mentality of kill or be killed is the overall determining factor of
survival, and the garish nature of the control exerted upon the districts by means of
setting children against each other in a gruesome fight to the death broadcast for all to see
and relish is a nightmare of truly monumental proportions. It is small wonder, thence, that
the immediacy of present tense narration by which Katniss recounts her experiences,
literally as they occur, would further lend a disturbingly grotesque hue to the dystopian
nature of the situation. As an audience we become swept up in the horror, pain, and
emotional trauma experienced by Katniss by means of experiencing it, as closely as
possible, through her own eyes. With her we experience the terror of knowing that her
very life cannot be counted upon as a guarantee as soon as she steps foot into the arena.
Indeed, this immediate play by play nature of The Hunger Games robs the audience of
even the assumed assurance that the narrator will survive to tell the tale until the end.
Because we experience the atrocities of the games simultaneously with Katniss herself,
we have absolutely no assurance that she will survive to complete her tale, or that the
blackouts and periods of venom induced unconsciousness that she experiences will not be
her last. Indeed, as an audience we cannot tell from one moment to the next if out
narrator will abandon us, and that the story will not end, in epilogue form, from a
different perspective in the event of Katniss untimely demise. It is in this manner that
Katniss own teenage perspective begins to come into play as another instance of
dystopian enhancement. She is quick to mentally remind herself, and through our
observance of her thoughts as they manifest themselves upon the page, the audience, that
her own life is by no means a thing of which she is assured. As she prepares to enter the

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blood bath of the arena, for example, she describes the emotional perturbation under
which she is laboring as nervousness seeps into terror as I anticipate what is to come. I
could be dead, flat-out dead, in an hour. Not even (Collins 145). The choppy and
disjointed nature of her thoughts, as in this example, exists as a reminder throughout the
novel of her youth. Her thought processes, as exemplified in this example, tend to occupy
a surface level depth throughout the majority of the novel. There is simply no time or
allowance for depth of thought or contemplation in the course of events. The horror of the
games and the anticipation of sudden death render her youthful brevity and limited depth
as elements that are necessarily preserved. These aspects of her thoughts reinforce the
horror of her situation and fully drive home the dystopian nature of the novel in that they
cause the audience to remain poised in shared anxiety with this unlikely heroine. The
audience has the opportunity to feel, with her, the urgency and immediacy of her situation
devoid of analysis or deeper contemplation. Indeed, who, in a situation such as this,
would waste the valuable resources of energy in thought? The very possibility of
remaining alive depends fully upon consciousness and full presence in every moment of
these gruesome games. This narrative style is particularly effective as a means by which
to render more pronounced the already dysfunctional elements of this dystopian tale.
Through the perspective of youth, a child just 16 years of age, being exposed to such
atrocity during a time when development into the maturity of adulthood should be the
only concern of a girl her age drives home the horror of the situation. Indeed, her
reflection, tempered by the immediacy of desperation, highlights the absurdity incumbent
upon the fact that something so banal as reality television, when taken out of its
appropriate context, could have the potential to figure so prominently in this dystopian

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society as to function as the vehicle of execution for children. The narrative style by
which the story is told therefore drastically heightens the awareness of danger and the
subsequent, resulting tension that the audience experiences as the story unfolds, moment
by moment, through the eyes of this youthful heroine. The direct exposure of the
audience to her responses and thoughts renders far more effective and moving the horror
and desperation critical to creating the realism and ability to relate and connect with the
characters that is so crucial to success in the dystopian genre.
Hunger, as may be guessed from the title of the novel, and the intensity with
which Katniss, despite the horrors of her situation, focuses on the lavish foods with which
she is provided throughout her preparation for the games is another major factor in the
establishment of this novel as a dystopia. Throughout the novel, Katniss spends a great
deal of time in the consideration and description of the delectable dishes offered to the
tributes by the wealthy capital. Her careful fixation on the details of the breakfast served
to her and the other tribute from district 12 as they travel aboard the train that bears them
to the games is one such example (55). When she is not in the presence of such wealth,
her mind often strays to it even, oddly enough, when she is in the midst of the horrors
of the games. While this detailed recollection of food and keen enjoyment in the
experience of new edibles despite the atrocity of her situation and probably impending
death may seem strange, Katniss obsession with food serves to highlight the want and
starvation of both her own childhood and the poverty of the districts overall in contrast to
the garish wealth of the capitol, in which foods of every type and delicacy are available in
an abundance unimaginable to the impoverished minds of the starving districts. Her
fixation on food is among her most childlike qualities. Despite the horror of death and

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brutality that forms the foundation of her exposure to it, in youthful enthusiasm she
makes the best of the situation through enjoyment of this wealth. Her cynicism, so clearcut and common throughout the majority of the novel, finds a curious repose in this
contrasting childlike interest. This creates an interesting character contrast that forms yet
another foundational aspect of the dystopian nature of the novel. It establishes more fully
than outside observation could the impact that want has upon the developing mind, and
sets up a telling indication of the sharp class divide existing between the privileged
capitol and the ravished districts. This deeply contrasting divide between the classes, a
primary feature of this dystopian society, is further illustrated through the mental
mechanisms by which Katniss connects the present abundance of food that she
experiences as she prepares for the games with her impoverished past. In one experience
upon the train, for example, Katniss contemplates a packet of cookies that was given to
her as a parting gift by the father of her fellow tribute from district 12. In a gesture
expressive of fierce independence and freedom from all expectations she throws this
packet onto the ground, and rapidly sees them vanish as the train carries her away. Yet,
just as they hit the ground, she notices that they have fallen into a patch of dandelions, the
single source of food on which her family relied in their time of direst want (49). This
observation sparks a recollection of their poverty and starvation leading up to this point, a
reverie that is abruptly halted by the announcement of a lavish breakfast for her and her
fellow tribute (50). This mental flexibility establishes more fully the theme of hunger as a
means by which the classes are divided, and illustrates the sharp contrast in fortunes
between the wealthy capitol and the impoverished districts. In this scenario, as in others,

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the presence of absence of food bears a deeper meaning within the context of the novel
overall.
Indeed, the theme of hunger serves a much deeper purpose than the simple
illustration of dystopian class divide. The overpowering presence of hunger and food in
Katniss thoughts becomes foundational to the advancement of the storyline and to the
movement of the plot. These elements, in turn, highlight even more clearly the dystopian
nature of the novel as it presents itself in the youthful thoughts and reactions of this
unlikely heroine. Early in the onset of the novel the love that Katniss bears for hunting,
albeit illegal, as a means by which to preserve her family from the grip of starvation
becomes the foundation for her preservation from death in the course of the Hunger
Games (8). Her skill in archery and her youthful daring, both skills that she acquired
through her years of hunting and stealth in the woods surrounding her district 12 home,
become her means of survival against the violence and murderous intent of the other
adolescents against whom she must fight in the games. This skill, developed in her
childhood with the sole goal of saving her family from starvation, becomes her greatest
asset in the quest for survival. Indeed, her background of hunger lends her an advantage
in the quest for survival in the additional sense that, because of it, she is well trained in
the art of subsisting from the products and plants of the woods that make up the arena.
Unlike the tributes that emerge from more affluent backgrounds, the hunger that was
Katniss perpetual companion throughout childhood enables her to survive even in the
absence of the prepared supplies that, to the others, are so necessary. This engrained
ability to survive becomes pivotal when Katniss discovers the stash of supplies that the
dominant tributes have hoarded for their own use. Rather than attempting to borrow from

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this stash, she utilizes hunger as a weapon against her adversaries through creating an
explosion and destroying their pile (287). Her experience with hunger, therefore,
becomes key to her survival. In light of this context, the fascination with food that
Katniss expresses in her thoughts throughout the tale begins to take on not only a
reasonable hue, but also becomes a pivotal aspect that lends credence to the tale as a part
of the dystopian genre. Her experience with hunger, an experience that occurred
throughout her young life, functions clearly as a shaping force in her strategy, thought
processes, and the perspective from which she narrates her tale. Even more significantly,
however, it is this same experience of hunger that prepares Katniss uniquely for her final
rebellion against the capitol at the conclusion of novel. As the games wind to a close and
only Katniss and her fellow tribute from district 12 remain alive, a sudden change in the
rules is broadcast into the arena informing the two that they cannot both be winners: one
of them must die so that the capital may have their victor (344). Katniss, spurred by anger
and intolerance of this harsh control, determines that mutual suicide by ingesting the
toxic berries that are found in the arena is the only viable alternative for the two
remaining tributes. This determination is significant in its perfect dovetail with the overall
theme of hunger on which Katniss fixates. Throughout the novel her thoughts have
strayed to ideals of food, both the delectable dishes from the capitol and the simple fair
that was her habitual provender at home. Now, as the novel concludes, her final rebellion
is couched in terms of consumption. This time, however, the food itself is deadly, and the
hunger that it fulfills is a hunger for something far deeper than any physical longing
could be; it fulfills her longing for freedom from the oppressive government that has
forced her to participate in the gruesomeness of the games, and forcibly pitted youth

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against youth in a disgusting battle to the death. The languid disgust and cynicism that
characterizes Katniss manner comes to a head in this action, and in her final decision to
take her own life by these means her desire to escape the cruelty of the regime under
which she lives becomes apparent. Her awareness that to live as the capitol expects the
people of the districts to live, enslaved under the iron thumb of the Hunger Games, is
truly not to live at all is mirrored in this final, most desperate act of hunger (344).
Through this hunger she finds, in the poison berries, the tool that she had previously
lacked to engage and confront her own barely acknowledged starvation for justice and
freedom. In her thoughts about food, therefore, is contained a much deeper meaning that
enhances the dystopian shade of the entire novel. Through the sharp contrasts that she
presents between the wealth and languor of the capitol and the industrious starvation of
the districts and her youthful consideration throughout, Katniss lends a hue of childlike
innocence tempered by adult cynicism that is truly a frightening warning of the impact
that maturing within the confines of a dystopian society of this caliber, shaped and
formed by hunger and thirst of the highest degree, both mental and physical anguish
leading to ultimate rebellion are the inevitable result.
This analysis may well be considered significant in light of the scholarship of the
dystopian genre due to the task that it tackles of illustrating the unique impact that
narration, possessing the immediacy of first person perspective told from a present tense
point of view, that originates in the thought processes of a teenager who matures before
the eyes of the audience throughout the course of the novels places this particular
dystopia in a most unique light. The fact that we, as an audience, have the opportunity to
feel with Katniss the pain and struggle of her early years as it echoes through the psyche

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of her present, experience with her the terror of the arena, her grief over the deaths of her
friends, and her struggle throughout the novel to process or, perhaps, to resist
processing the atrocity of the events into which she has been thrust in the aftermath of a
childhood of which she was robbed and a lifetime of injustice drives more fully than
could otherwise have been possible the terror and fear of the situation. The gradual
development of the theme of hunger adds a further layer of depth. Through the impetus of
her hunger experiences she is finally driven to the act of rebellion that is the necessary
consequence of even the cursory reflection upon her situation that could not be avoided.
For a young girl of Katniss mettle, shaped by the traumatic experiences of hunger in
many forms throughout her life, the ultimate realization that no hunger of the body could
equal the hunger for freedom bubbling unstoppable from the depths of the human heart.

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Works Cited
Blasingame, James, and Suzanne Collins. "An Interview With Suzanne Collins." Journal
Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.8 (2009): 726-727. Literary Reference Center.
Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.
Saunders, Jane M., and Gwynne Ellen Ash. "Entering The Arena: The Figured Worlds
Transition Of Preservice Teachers." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56.6
(2013): 490-499. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Simmons, Amber M. "Class On Fire: Using The Hunger Games Trilogy To Encourage
Social Action." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56.1 (2012): 22-34.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.