*Spoiler Alert*
This post is in response to those negative reviews I have read on the Hunger Games by other fellow Catholic bloggers. I sense that if we don’t give this movie an in-depth look then we can easily give it a brush stroke review and claim it is as deplorable for being entertained by children killing children. However, if we do, we miss so much.
I am only part way through the first book. After watching the movie, I couldn’t help but see the correlation between this futuristic world and the current situation we Catholics are facing.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story line here is a brief synopsis as found on wikipedia. The Hunger Games is a young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of sixteen-year-old who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country where North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, holds absolute power over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive. This serves as punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol in which a 13th district was destroyed and as a reminder that the Capitol has complete control over the districts.
The main characters in the story are from district 12. They are fairly poor and struggle to survive. Hunting small game and trading what they can for bread and supplies. The Capitol has arranged it so that the children between the ages of 12 to 18 can receive a year supply of grain and oil by having their name submitted to the hunger games lottery twice as many times. So they are forced into increasing their chances of being selected for the hunger games.
It is clear from the onset that with the exception of one or two of the twelve districts, this is an involuntary process. I couldn’t help but compare it to the Gladiators of old, where criminals and slaves face each other in an arena and were forced to fight to the death for sport. These slaves and criminals were used for sport, robbed of their human dignity and seen as otherwise not being able to contribute to society. The difference in the hunger games is that the Capitol uses children as young as twelve for this same purpose. However, that is not the story. It’s not just for sport.
The Capitol seeks to control every aspect of the people’s lives. Including the viewing of the games, this is mandatory. They manipulate the children in the game, and use propaganda.
While this story does deal with death and killing and may be too violent for some young, sensitive viewers, I feel that it is no more violent than what we have seen in Lord of the Rings movies, or Chronicles of Narnia. The characters are victims of injustice and a corrupt government.
The characters face a moral dilemma, where they either have to kill or be killed. The protagonist only kills in self-defence. This is understandable and even permissible as we read in the Youth Catechism #380; someone who is actually attacking the lives of others may and must be stopped, if necessary by killing the attacker himself.
There are two grey areas with regards to the killing. In one scene we see the main character kill another teenager who is being mauled by vicious dogs. It is clear that this character was going to die a slow, painful and tortuous death. This sort of “put him out of his misery” killing brings up the debate of mercy killing.
When we see all situations through the eyes of faith we acknowledge that suffering has meaning. We know that our suffering and the suffering of others is our road to heaven. While it is painfully difficult to watch others suffer, when we “put others out of their misery” we rob them of the opportunity to be purified in this life. Only God knows what suffering awaits them in the next, since we all must be purified before entering heaven. We also place our own soul in danger for taking another life.
In another scene two of the characters talk about committing double suicide by eating poisonous berries. They share that this will be better than having to kill each other. We know it is to ‘call the bluff’ of the Capitol or the game makers. Still through the eyes of faith we know that suicide is never an option.
This brings us to the other points worthy of discussion. There is a lack of spirituality in this story. The Capitol is like god; they can create matter out of nothing and offer miraculous ointments that cure burns and cuts overnight. What the Capitol accepts as signs of rebellion is very different from what we’d expect. Subtle acts, such as, refusing to clap and cheer when the protagonist volunteers for the hunger games to save her twelve-year-old sister from going. Showing respect for another character after she’s been killed by surrounding her dead body with flowers and saluting. A true rebellion would be to refuse to kill each other in the game. This would mean the game makers would create fires and creatures for them to face to the death but they would still show up the Capitol by refusing to play their game. In one scene we see the game maker and the president discussing the possibility of killing the protagonist, because she has shown them up with these subtle acts of rebellion, but they know that by doing so they will make her a martyr.
At first glance, I wondered why kill the youth? Did they view them as useless members of society? Actually, it seems the opposite. The youth are more likely to attempt a rebellion. So the Capitol ensures that they are divided, creating a game that ensures they look out for themselves as they attempt to survive. Also, the youth give hope and the Capitol knows that too much hope can be a dangerous thing. They rob the parents of hope, by making them completely reliant on the Capitol for limited food and aid. As a parent, when we can’t protect our own children, we would very easily feel powerless and hopeless. The difference between the real world and this fictional world is that in hunger games there is no supernatural hope.
Hope cannot be taken from us by an oppressive government, because hope comes to us from God. You Cat #308 explains, hope is the power by which we firmly and constantly long for what we were placed on earth to do; to praise God and to serve him; and for our true happiness, which is finding fulfillment in God; and for our final home; in God. Hope is trusting in what God has promised us….even though we do not yet see it. God’s Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can patiently hope for Truth.
The message in this story that “Hope is greater than fear” is a strong and timely message for us. This is not a time to be passive about our beliefs. This is not a time for us to sit back, wait and see what happens. This is a time for us to stand for what we believe. To be the people of hope we are called to be.
In Canada, our government is threatening to corrupt our children. While they are not organizing a slaughter of their physical bodies, what they are threatening is much worse. They are threatening to endanger their souls, corrupt their morals and bully us parents into accepting it as they are sneaking it into to our education system.
Our youth are the hope for a better future. Satan knows this as well as we do, so here is the effort to rob us of our hope. The Hunger Games has provided us an opportunity to discuss, with our youth, the importance of hanging on to hope.