There is no literary work quite like “The Hunger Games” novels by Suzanne Collins, with more than 100 million copies of all five books in the franchise, having been sold across the world. 

In case you haven’t read the iconic novels (which you should), “The Hunger Games” is a fictional world, Panem, ruled by the authoritarian Capitol. Divided into districts based on economic and social class, citizens live and work under the firm hand of those in the Capitol. 

As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol, the Capitol forces every District to send two tributes to compete in a televised competition, where they are thrown into an arena to fight to the death. The last one standing gains fame and fortune, but also their life. 

Collins’ writing is unlike any other author. She is descriptive with her words and the way that everything connects across all her books is simply brilliant. Her storylines are all interwoven with each other, with the symbolism, research, and storytelling being so well-done that her books are easy to read, and yet still contain so much depth. 

I remember reading an excerpt of “The Hunger Games” for an assignment in sixth grade. It was compelling and I immediately went to check it out at the school library. I was engrossed from the start and my longtime love for Collins and her books began then. 

For me, “The Hunger Games” became my first step into science fiction and those apocalyptic, dystopian worlds. As I got older, books such as “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler and “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding were introduced into my school book repertoire. My understanding and love for “The Hunger Games” helped enhance my understanding of those novels as well. 

With the most recent release of “Sunrise on the Reaping”, the story behind one of Collins’ infamous characters, Haymitch Abernathy, there’s been more discussion around Collins and her “The Hunger Games” universe. 

I’ve seen multiple critics, book influencers, and others describe her books as being “future classics” and I agree wholeheartedly. 

They deal with the themes of survival, betrayal, inequality, love, and identity, while also exploring a social and political side of rebellions, freedom, and oppression that is reflected in our own world. 

For instance, Collins utilizes the idea of the Capitol and Districts to separate the rich and the poor, highlighting a gap between economic status that existed centuries before its time.

She also toys with the censorship of media, political power and control, and the glorification of horrific events. 

This is seen in the Capitol controlling what comes out on their television and radio channels and President Snow having a tight hold of his control, whilst other people observe the battles in the arena, their views fueling the horrors of it as nobody chooses to stop the games. 

The violence and exploitation by the Capitol distracts those in Panem from deeper roots of societal, political, economical, and cultural issues, further highlighting the oppression of those in Panem, and perhaps the citizens aren’t even aware of it. 

With the circumstances of the current political and social world, it begs the question of whether or not the odds really are in our favor.
Many readers have come up with theories, especially with recent releases of two new novels from Collins, with the other one being President Snow’s backstory in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, released in 2020. 

In an interview with Scholastic for that novel, Collins said that she only “writes when [she has] something to say.” 

This comes with the increase of banning books, the newfound control of politics within the recent elections, and even with the continued cycle of mainstream events such as concerts, festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, and celebrity gossip and scandals despite massive social issues dominating.

This includes revoking visas of college students across campuses including the popular and known Universities of California, the continued tragedy of war, pain, and suffering in the Middle East, and ongoing fights between racism and social justice. 

“The Hunger Games” is an eerie mirror of our society. Collins’ works date back to the initial release of “The Hunger Games” in 2009, and the topics and themes are only increasingly relevant to this day, where they have gone even further back, even before the release of “The Hunger Games”.

It’s reflected even in early novels, such as “Parable of the Sower”, which was written in 1993, and still predicted natural disasters such as raging fires across California and how censorship, political extremism, and social and economical inequality led to a collapse of their own fictional society. 

History novels themselves have written, described, and discussed the collapses of societies, such as Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Qing dynasty in China, all with these same social issues looming as a shadow over them. 

So, are the odds ever really in our favor, or is society blindly and continuously repeating history until it falls apart?