Before the Book: Hunger Games
Books have been, for the longest time, humanity’s easiest escape from reality. Fictitious worlds are brought to life with something resembling real life, but not quite, leaving much to the reader’s imagination. In this intricate balance of fantasy and reality, many find themselves engrossed in wordy pages for hours, days, and even weeks on end. But no matter how alluring the enchantment of fictional stories may be, these tales are still grounded in some sense of reality. In this article series, the real-life inspiration of multiple popular book series will be revealed in detail, hopefully imparting insights otherwise unseen in real life. With the coming release of its prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, what better series to start with than The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins?
Jarring the conventions of young adult literature, The Hunger Games paved the way for dystopian-era stories to rise in popularity. It follows the journey of blunt survivalist Katniss Everdeen as she’s thrust from the depths of the poverty-ridden Seam to the heights of the grand and illustrious Capitol—all because of her participation in the titular Hunger Games, a gory bloodshed where one’s participation is synonymous with their death. With Katniss’ story, readers bear witness to themes of social injustice, reality entertainment, and the justifications of war from the perspective of a hardened hunter. It’s surprising, then, to learn that the concept of The Hunger Games, the precursor to this series exploring complex and relevant issues, came from one sleepy night of television channel surfing.
Author Suzanne Collins, having just concluded her previous series, The Underland Chronicles, was seeking a new project. In this new series, she hoped to explore more of the “just war” debate she had touched upon in The Underland Chronicles. Little did she know that inspiration would swiftly strike after one drowsy night spent flipping from channel to channel.
Collins first came across footage of the then-Iraq War depicting young soldiers caught in the heat of battle. She was reminded of that dark time when her father served in the Vietnam War, that uncertainty of not knowing if he would come home or not with every recap footage shown. She even recalled when he would take her out hunting in the forest and foraging for food. To prepare us for survival, Collins thought. Switching to another channel, she then saw the same young faces, now in a reality competition competing for some prize, the oversaturation of drama a stark contrast to the grim scene she had just seen. Somewhere in the back of her head, she was reminded of the myth of Theseus, where a cruel king forced the people of Athens to send a dozen of their children into a sinister labyrinth that houses the bloodthirsty Minotaur. Back in those days, this forced punishment also counted as entertainment, what with the existence of the gladiator games and the glory (and death) that comes with it.
Before the book came a rough outline of a project to undertake, of themes to explore: Young people. War. Entertainment. The lines between all these ideas started to blur—but with a chance of inspiration, this vague collection turned into a narrowed-down story—the series we are familiar with today. Suzanne Collins indubitably impacted modern fiction and inspired countless young minds with her series’ suspenseful moments, grating allusions, and grounded insights—all with the catalyst of imagination, which took The Hunger Games from mere possibility to resounding reality.
