Hunger Games

It's been a while since I read this book, but I brushed up on it again for this post. The book features a dystopian world where this society has been broken up into 12 districts, each contributing something to the society. There is also a main city called the Capital, and it is the most wealthy area as well as where the Hunger Games are hosted. Because the districts tried to rise up and rebel once, the Capital subjected them to these games where each year every district has to submit two tributes, a boy and a girl, to fight to the death in an arena until only one remains. Katniss Everdeen is from District 12, the poorest district and the district of the coal miners. Her younger sister Prim is pulled from a drawing to participate in the games, so Katniss volunteers to take her place. While in the arena, Katniss and her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta have a strange budding romance, but she also has her best friend and somewhat boyfriend at home, Gale.


As far as the book adaptation to the big screen, I think that it was done fairly well. The film generally stick to the storyline of the book and only minor differences were made or excluded. There were a few things that changes, and maybe not for the best, but I understand that not all of the details can make it in.

One thing that I did notice that was excluded was the description and background of the Avoxes. The Avoxes are the people in the film dressed in red or black outfits with red hair who are used as servants. They are only ever briefly in the background to serve dinner in the film, but in the book it is a much deeper story. The Avoxes are traitors who have had their tongues cut out and must now serve the Capital. Katniss knows one of the girls who is a servant in their rooms in the Capital. She saw the girl and a boy trying to escape from her district while she was out hunting one day, and she finds out that they were captured. The girl ended up as an Avox and the boy was killed. I know this doesn't seem like a huge thing to leave out, but this is just one instance of a small background detail that is excluded, there are many other examples that are similar.


Another back story that was excluded was Madge and the Mayor. Madge was the mayor's daughter in District 12 and a classmate of Katniss's. Katniss and Madge were somewhat friends, but when Katniss receives her goodbyes before going to the Capital to be in the Hunger Games, Madge is actually the one who gives her the Mockingjay pin. SPOILER*** Madge later dies when the Capital destroys all of District 12, along with her father the Mayor.***

Also, when Madge is left out of the goodbyes said to Katniss before her departure, another character is too. Peeta's father goes to say goodbye to Katniss and gives her cookies that he baked at their family's bakery. This just shows a further connection between Katniss and the Malark family that is left out of the movie. I find it especially interesting that Peeta's father said goodbye to Katniss when his own son was also going to be in the Games.

In the Games, very few things were changed and I think that they were done for legitimate reasons. For one, in a few instances the timing of events is off, but this was simply done to speed up the movie. An example of this happening is when Katniss finds water. In the book it takes her a few days to find any drinkable water, but in the movie she finds it relatively quickly. This simply speeds up the time between the start of the Game and her finding water, which is basically just a lot of her wandering around. Another event that is sped up is Katniss and Rue's alliance. It actually takes place over a couple of days and Katniss protects Rue because she reminds her of her younger sister Prim. This is not mentioned in the movie and is again another instance of leaving out background details.


The last difference that I thought was influential to the story line was the rioting the occurred in District 11 when Rue is killed. People are fighting against the peacekeepers to show support for Katniss and her trying to protect Rue. The rioting happens from the point of Rue's death on through the film. In the book, because it is told from Katniss's point of view, the rioting is not known to the reader or to her until the very end of the book. This affects how she acts and feels about the Capital and what she does in the Games. I think that it just had to be handled differently in the film because it is no longer being told from a first-person perspective.

Overall, I would give the book to film adaptation a 4.5 out of 5 rating. The story stayed on track to the book and there were very few changes made. I think that most people who loved the books first would be fairly happy with the film.