With over 100 million copies sold and 54 translations, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games has taken the world by storm. Since being written in 2008, film producers have picked it up for development—the first movie came out in 2012—and has quickly developed a loyal fan base. The film trilogy made $2.9 billion in box office sales and introduced many consumers to the dystopia genre. However, this utter success has an unintended consequence; The Hunger Games has inspired a generation of lifeless, copycat dystopian novels, each following the same simple formula to success.
In The Hunger Games, Collins brings the world into the 2300s, with the country of Panem occupying present-day the continental United States of America. In Panem, citizens reside in twelve districts, each specializing in a specific industry, ranging from transportation to lumber. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12—the poorest and most detested coal-producing district. Each year, the Capitol—the capital of Panem—holds the Hunger Games, where a boy and girl from each district are placed in a special arena to fight until one victor remains. The first book focuses on the 74th Hunger Games, in which Everdeen participates. Throughout the trilogy, the reader follows Everdeen as she rebels against the oppressive government of Panem.
However, looking beyond the details and underlying themes of oppression and class struggle, The Hunger Games boils down to a formulaic approach to dystopia. In a divided society, a young teen girl struggles to make ends meet, born in one of the worst factions and barely surviving. Her childhood best friend is in love with her, but she doesn’t notice him. Society has some construct that pits different levels of society against one another, and the girl just so happens to be eligible. Of course, she ends up in the competition, but luckily, she has niche skills that will allow her to thrive. Far away from home, she clings to anything that reminds her of where she’s from, a close confidant. However, this friend is suddenly killed, and the girl has a hand in it. This fuels her fight against the system, and she’s ready to win—society doesn’t like this. When all seems lost, she pulls a secret trick out of her hand, defeats the competition, falls in love with someone other than her best friend, and becomes a leader in the movement reforming society.
Collins uses this plot to make a statement about breaking away from expectations and rising above circumstances. Everdeen was among the first to publicly stand against the Hunger Games when no one else questioned it. However, this meaning was entirely lost in the onslaught of dystopian young adult novels that followed. Instead of realizing the powerful message of being brave in the face of adversity, authors attributed the story’s success to the divided society and doomed love triangle.
Other stories featuring the latter two tropes quickly appeared: Matched in 2010, The Selection in 2012, The Young Elites in 2014, and Divergent also in 2014 are just a handful of examples that utilize the Hunger Games model. Of these, however, Divergent is the most egregious. In Divergent, Beatrice (Tris) Prior is born into Abnegation—the selfless faction—where she feels disconnected from others and like a fraud; no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem as altruistic as everyone around her. All teenagers choose their faction at age 16 following a personality test ascertaining which faction they fit with, most remaining with the faction they were born into. Prior is one of a handful of Divergent people, meaning they don’t fit nicely into one faction.
Throughout the story, Prior struggles to adapt to her new faction, the daredevil Dauntless, which pits her against other teenagers in a competition. If she loses, she is forced out of society. She works to prove herself, her divergence making this easier and falls in love. However, while working to save society, she accidentally kills her best friend. This does not hinder her, and she eventually becomes one of a handful of folks working to save society from the faction system that has divided them.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? When broken down, “Divergent” falls directly into the Hunger Games Model, from the divided faction and new-found love to the end-game leadership position.
However, this is not to say that all of these books are awful copies of each other. Each book/series has been incredibly successful in its own right, creating dedicated fans and often inspiring spin-off series and TV productions. The genre has just become predictable. Instead of following the same diluted plot, dystopian young adult authors must go against the grain. Just as Collins warned, literature has fallen into a dangerous repetitive pattern. No one is dying, but the genre still needs an Everdeen to break away and take us in a new direction.
Written by Dresden Benke of Walt Whitman High School
Graphic by Arpa Gomes of Springbrook High School