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The Hunger Games
The
Hunger Games is a book
written by Suzanne Collins. This paper looks at the relation between Katniss
Everdeen in The Hunger Games book and
Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings
Trilogy. They both work really hard to reach their goals and sacrifice
themselves to others. In The Hunger Game
book, Tyranny and corrupt politics are forms of political power found
throughout the Capital. Katniss becomes a person that expresses how a just
person can survive a corrupt society ruled by tyrannical powers. The Hunger
Games were the result of the districts uprising against the Capitol during the
“Dark Days” (Collins 18). The “Treaty of Treason gave us new laws to guarantee
peace, and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated”
(Collins 18). The Capitol uses force and terror to enslave the citizens of
Panem. The Hunger Games is just a card of irrational power in the tyrannical
hand of the Capitol. Evil is a mild word for the Hunger Games. The citizens of Panem are aware of the
tyranny of the Capitol and what a deceitful disguise it is of the power the
Capitol wields over Panem (Aristotle):
“To
make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the
Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against
the others” (Collins 19). Katniss
Everdeen can be compared to Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Both Katniss and Frodo have this in
common: “a road, a team, and a prize” (Snyder 19) they win. For Katniss the
road is the Hunger Games themselves and the training that she has to undergo;
for Frodo the road is the adventure to Mount Doom; for Katniss the team is the
Tributes, while for Frodo it is the fellowship of the Ring; lastly, the prize
for Katniss is to give her life for Prim, while for Frodo Baggins it is to
destroy the ring of power in the pit of Mount Doom.
In contrast, Katniss and Frodo are
from different worlds: Katniss is from a home of hard workers who simply are
trying to live their basic lives, while Frodo comes from a world filled with
wizards and supernatural powers, flying dragons and all-seeing evil.
Katniss and Frodo are forced to take the
lives of others or have their lives taken from themselves. Killing is always
against natural law (Fox). In the end, both are led to adapt the inhuman
behavior of others. Just as Katniss has to enter a world, where the Tributes
have to kill one another to survive, so Frodo experiences many of his closest
friends turning against himself by the power of the ring. At the Mount of Doom,
the ring almost has Frodo turn against his own self and Sam. How little chance
we would stand of surviving another rebellion. For both Frodo and Katniss the
evil powers in their lives have this to say: “Look how we take your children
and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do” (Collins 18).
Both Frodo and Katniss have to live under
an oppressive power. Katniss has to live under the rule of the Capitol, while
Frodo has to live under the watchful eye of Sauron. Katniss gives everything
for her family and friends; family and friends are all she wants to be
happy. Frodo Baggins will stop at
nothing to be faithful to his family, especially Bilbo Baggins his Uncle. Bilbo
even goes so far as to give his life for his Uncle when he decides to go to
Mount Doom to cast the ring into the fiery depths; Katniss Everdeen gives her
life in exchange for her sister Prim when she gets a chance to take her place
as a Tribute. There is only one reason she does this and that is to keep her
sister from a terrible fate. Frodo Baggins and his family have to suffer at the
hands of Sauron and his evil leader turned bad, Sauraman, because of something
that has happened in the past; when Sauron had the ring cut off from his finger
by Isildur in a battle with Sauron. Katniss and the twelve districts have to
suffer at the hands of the oppressive Capitol because of the uprising that took
place, when the Panem tried to overthrow the government during the Dark days.
Finally, Katniss has to prove herself, face the Capitol at their own game and
find a way to still outsmart the Capitol to win food for her family. Frodo
Baggins also has to prove he can rescue Middle Earth from Sauron by bringing
the ring back to the Mount Doom and casting it into the depths of the volcano.
Katniss knows that winner of the Hunger
Games lives his remaining days in ease. In order to win the prize she has to
sacrifice herself throughout the games until someone wins. Frodo Baggins knows
that if he leaves for the Mount of Doom he may never return, but if he doesn’t
try to free Middle Earth he will have forfeited a chance to realize what he was
made for. Furthermore, just as Frodo
Baggins journeys all over Middle Earth and to the Mount of Doom in order to
accomplish his goal of destroying the ring of power and he won’t accept any
praise for doing what he was only made for. Katniss sacrifices her life for her
sister and wins the Hunger Games, but she is surprised when others want her to
be something other than who she is.
Both
Frodo and Katniss need to be true to themselves. When Katniss is questioned
about her true self she doesn’t answer because she knows the cost of revealing
her true self to the Panem people: “All I can think is how unjust the whole
thing is, the Hunger Games. Why am I hopping around like some trained dog
trying to please people I hate?” (Collins 117)
Katniss understands her motives for giving her life for Prim, but she
does not want put herself at risk. Even
when Katniss tries to put on airs about herself, they do not work:
By the end of the session, I am no one at all. Haymitch
started drinking somewhere around
witty, and a nasty edge has crept into his voice. “I give up, sweetheart. Just
answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise
them” (Collins 118).
Katniss does not want to win by being
untrue to herself, but she wins when she is not trying to win anything. Frodo
Baggins becomes the only one who can carry the ring to Mount Doom because he
finds out that he is the only one with the right disposition to carry the
burden.
Katniss sees the Capitol who uses tyranny
to control others. Frodo knows Sardon and Sauron will stop at nothing to gain
even more power if they can get their hands on the ring before they reach the
lava pit on Mount Doom where they can cast the ring and destroy it. Both the
Capitol and Sauron justify the means for an evil end. The tributes are forced
to kill unjustly, while the fellowship of the ring are forced to kill the army
of Sauron and Sardon in order to fulfill their goal of destroying the ring of
power and bringing peace to Middle Earth.
Just as Frodo Baggins has to play along
with Sauron who moves his army and Sauramon to betray his order so that he can
gain control of Middle Earth, Katniss has to watch the Capitol use the
Gamemakers control the Hunger Games and play with the rules of the Hunger
Games. Katniss shot an arrow in the Gamemakers direction because they were
ignoring her. During the debate, Haymitch says, “More likely they’ll make your
life hell in the arena” (Collins 107). The Gamemakers can twist and bend the
rules to their favor, even make the rules change for whatever reason they want.
Katniss Everdeen was not afraid to
show her love for her family because family and home was the one thing she
would later be willing to die for:
“We could do it, you know,” Gale says quietly. “What?” I
ask. “Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make
it,” says Gale. I do not know how to respond. The idea is so preposterous. “If
we didn’t have so many kids,” he adds quickly. They are not our kids, of
course. But they might as well be. Gale’s two little
brothers and a sister. Prim. And you may as well throw in our mothers, too,
because how would they live without us? Who would fill those mouths that are
always asking for more? With both of us hunting daily, there are still nights
when game has to be swapped for lard or shoelaces or wool, still nights when we
go to bed with our stomachs growling” (Collins
9).
In short, both Frodo and Katniss are
led on a journey away from home and back again, to another world where they
have to learn new skills of surviving and coping. Both Katniss and Frodo have
to play along with oppressive powers and find ways to prevent them. Both
Katniss and Frodo both become orphans in the eyes of their peers and older and
the only person they can depend upon to carry them thru is the deepest part of
themselves, to carry forth the desire to accomplish their goals.
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