The Hunger Games
If you're unfamiliar with the series, read below for a quick recap of important information (be aware that there will be a few spoilers)!
May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor
The Hunger Games:
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature.
Catching Fire:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
Mockingjay:
​
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay
In the dystopian world of The Hunger Games trilogy, the country of Panem (from the Latin panem et circenses, which hints at the oppressive government control) is divided into the affluent capital and 12 districts, each number more impoverished than the last (panem et circenses, n.d.). Most in the outer districts fight starvation off every day and work difficult labor to support the capital. As described above, as a reminder of the capital’s power, each district must send a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Every citizen must watch these “tributes” battle in the arena until only one remains and is crowned victor. For the districts closer to the capital and lower in number, competing in the games is a beacon of pride, and the children are trained from a young age to fight; for the districts on the outskirts of Panem, being chosen as tribute is a death sentence.
​
For Katniss Everdeen of District 12, the main character of the trilogy, she knows she will die in the games when she volunteers in the first book to save her younger sister. The other tribute is Peeta Mellark, a boy who would eventually become Katniss' close companion and lover. Coming from the poorest district in Panem, odds are not, in fact, in Katniss' favor, and she has to rely on her instincts and hunting abilities to survive; while in the arena, she must also balance relationships and love, both platonic and otherwise. She witnesses firsthand the brutality of the capital and the oppression of all of the district’s under its rule. Shocking to everyone, she is able to win the Hunger Games along with the other tribute from her district by pretending to be hopelessly in love and threatening to kill both of them, leaving the games without a winner. Although her plan works, openly standing against the capital is dangerous, and, as book 2, Catching Fire, begins, Katniss is frequently threatened and warned about controlling her actions. Unfortunately for the capital, the flames of resistance have already been lit, and, as Katniss tours the districts on her victory rounds, small groups begin to rise up against the police forces and protest, especially in the lower districts. In response, the capital announces a special Hunger Games in which the old winners would participate, meaning that Katniss was thrown back into the ring.
She is able to escape the arena, being saved by a rebel group, and becomes the symbol of the resistance. In book 3, Mockingjay, she is used by the rebels to inspire other districts to fight back and warns the capital, “fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!" The resistance officially begins, and the capital bombs all insurgent districts as the rebels fight to take down the brutal, oppressive government. After bloody fights, bombings, torture, and exceutions, the rebels manage to take over the capital and Panem, although the future of the nation remains unknown at the end of the series. Katniss’ story ends with her returning to her home, having lost many loved ones, and living with her lover from the books. The movies follow the same plot, with insignificant differences.
"He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capital ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gives us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games."
​
- Katniss Everdeen, (Collins, 2008, pg. 24)
Popularity
The series has amassed much acclaim from critics, noted on the bestseller list for The New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal (Collins, n.d.). It won the "Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book Honor, the 2009 Yalsa’s Teens’ Top Ten, the 2008 Cybil Award in the category of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many more accolades (Collins, n.d.). Similarly, the movies won numerous awards and critical acclaim, including the 2010 Teen Choice award for Choice Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie (IMDBtv, n.d.). Critics appreciated the mixing of adult themes with adolescence and the powerful female lead different from past action movies (Metacritic, n.d.). Others commented on the “overt critique of violence,” and how “the series makes warfare deeply personal, forcing readers to contemplate their own roles as desensitized voyeurs” (Dominus, 2011).
Sales-wise, The Hunger Games was a massive success, with over 65 million copies of the trilogy sold in the U.S. alone and the rights sold to 56 territories and 51 languages (Kozlowski, 2020). Clearly, the impact of the series has been lasting; the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, sold more than 500,000 copies in its first weeks, despite coming out 12 years after the first book in the trilogy (Kozlowski, 2020). The movies also reaped massive popularity, garnering $677,923,379 in the international box office and dominating the American box office for weeks, making over $1 billion collectively (Box, n.d.). The movies also shot Jennifer Lawrence into stardom, beginning her career as an Oscar-winning actress, while continuing to be an identifying factor for her. The series is also credited with sparking the YA dystopian novel boom of the early 2000s, the time in which I’ll be focusing on. Although dystopian novels continued to be published, they grew in popularity following the release of The Hunger Games series.
The Three-Finger Salute
The three-fingered salute is one of the most iconic symbols from the trilogy and was made even more popular through the visual representation in the movies. Although it would eventually become a symbol of the resistance against the oppressive capital, it had more humble origins. As Katniss explains in the first book, “it is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means goodbye to someone you love” (Collins, 2008, pg. 35). Flashing the sign did not symbolize resistance but gratitude and goodbye. The first time it’s seen in both the books and the movies is when Katniss volunteers at the reaping in the place of her sister; as she looks out over the stage at her district, everyone raises the three fingers to say goodbye. It is a powerful sign of the connection within the community and acknowledgment of the bleak future she faces in the games.
​
The next time the symbol appears is halfway through the first novel after the death of Rue, a 12-year-old girl from district 11 who forms a sibling-like partnership with Katniss in the games. As Katniss covers her body in flowers, she sings to Rue; when she finishes, she presses her fingers to her lips and flashes the three-fingered symbol to Rue’s body (Collins, 2008, pg. 366). In the movie, she shows the symbol directly to the cameras. Although it is her way of saying goodbye and thank you still, the symbol has also begun to include threads of resistance, aligning with the fact that "Rue's death...marks the moment when Katniss resolves to take a stand beyond simple survival in the first round of Games" (Tan, 2014, pg. 32). In decorating Rue’s body with flowers, Katniss is forcing the public to see her pain and the body; she forces the symbol to also represent more than a bittersweet sentiment.
​
This trend is only reinforced when the symbol surfaces again. In the books, the next appearance is in book 2, Catching Fire, whose entire plot is based around a growing rebellion. After the games, Katniss and Peeta go on a victory tour around all of the districts; when they reach district 11, Rue’s district, the crowd slowly raises up the salute, which sparks a small uprising. Although it is quickly quelled, the rebellion marks the beginning of the salute being used for resistance and fighting back against oppression in nonviolent ways. The first man who held up the salute is publicly executed, which only spurs more resistance. From then on, the three-fingered salute is solidified as a symbol of resistance against the capital and defiance from their rule. When working with the rebels, Katniss frequently flashes the salute, and the rebel leaders make a point to film her making the symbol to inspire others to act.