“Reaping” Environmental Justice through Compassion in The Hunger Games

Abstract

When we look back at literary culture in the future, the early twentyfirst century will be recognized as a golden age of Young Adult literature. Read increasingly by adults as well as teens, young adult fiction has a growing audience and thus a growing influence, particularly when—as has been the case with Harry Potter and the Twilight Saga— the novels become multi-million dollar entertainment empires. The newest testament to the growing popularity of young adult fiction is The Hunger Games, a speculative fiction novel that tackles two of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: the global food system and hunger. Addressing these problems through a grotesque gladiatorial spectacle, the novel repeatedly emphasizes that food is a social and environmental justice concern, showing that how we view the natural world—as “raw materials” to be consumed, manipulated, or contaminated according to our desires—extends to both our domestic labor practices and our use of marginalized human beings globally. Through a fast-paced, action-packed plot, Suzanne Collins indicts the global food system where agribusiness and control over the methods of growth, agricultural knowledge, land rights, and cash cropping