The Hunger Games Trilogy—Art for the Occupy Era

Abstract

The Hunger Games trilogy is the story of Katniss, a 16-year-old who lives in a post-apocalyptic North America, a region now named Panem, and one which is subdivided into 13 districts and a capital city (the Capitol). The districts are by and large poor (with the exception of District 1 and District 2 that are considerably wealtier than the others). District 12, which houses Katniss and her family, is a depressed mining community whose denizens supplement their meagre wages by hunting and fishing the surrounding woods. The Capitol, in contrast, represents a rich metropolitan excess where cultural decadence is fused with pronounced economic and technological power. The Capitol is parasitic on the districts, using its technological superiority to extract tribute. As well, every year a form of cultural tribute is enacted—a ritual sacrifice in which each of the impoverished districts sends two of its children to battle to the death in a coliseum-style contest which takes place at the heart of the imperium. After lots have been drawn, and her younger sister has been picked out, Katniss volunteers to fight in her sibling’s place. And so, the 74th Hunger Games commence.