The Hunger Games

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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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