The novel The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, should be a challenged book because it encourages unnecessary killing, involves immoral actions, but it teaches teenagers how to express loyalty.
The main character Katniss Everdeen, a recent volunteer for the Hunger
Games, realizes that the Career Tributes have been trained for this moment.
However, Katniss has not been trained for this moment. She says: “Girls
know 20 different ways to kill you with a knife” (Collins ). Katniss becomes terrified at the fact that she will be put
in an arena against other humans, who have been trained, for her life. She
begins to reminisce on the days with her best friend, Gail, shooting at animals
with a bow and arrow, she remembers how good she was too. As stated above, the Career
Tributes have been trained for this moment; they “know 20 different ways to
kill” someone “with a knife.” Katniss can only imagine what else they have been
taught. All of the training for the Hunger Games and even the Hunger Games in
general, are all very unnecessary. The only reason this event occurs in the
book is pleasure. It is sadly ironic that this is what they need for pleasure,
what they don’t realize is that could be them the next year. There are many
reasons as to why this book, The Hunger Games, should be a challenged book. One
of the reasons is because this book involves unnecessary killing. Since, the
whole idea of the Hunger Games, which is putting 24 humans in an arena and
having only one survive for the audience’s pleasure, is all unnecessary. The
fact that people have been trained for this moment frightens some candidates,
especially Katniss.
I agree that there was a lot of unnecessary killing in this book, but I think it also serves as a lesson to the reader. The whole reason behind the Hunger Games themselves is to keep people ignorant and to demoralize them, so they will be distracted from what the real issues are. In the Capitol for example, the citizens are kept happy and ignorant so they don't have any idea as to what is happening in the districts. The lesson is that we have to try not to succumb to this level of ignorance, and focus on what our real issues are.
ReplyDeleteI find the hunger games to be a non-issue to high school students. Because i don't believe it is at a high school reading level. I believe it is more aimed at middle-school students, and i see it having no application in a high school setting. It has some good moralistic scenes like when Catnis cries over the people she has killed. However i don't see it ever being read in high school. I don't even believe it would be challenged due to the fact that high school students probably can handle the Hunger games. I think this book should be challenged at a fifth grade reading level but past that i see it as simple enjoyment fiction. Read simply for pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI understand your reasoning behind the ideas you have on unnecessary killing, but I feel that high schoolers can handle reading this book. I believe it should be a must read because of the bigger messages that are trying to be brought across to the readers. The careers are the ones who are enjoying the killing and they have been training for this their whole life, but that is not the message the author is trying to get across. She is not saying that killing is good and people should do it. We see how she cherishes life through the main characters Katniss and Peta because they have to work to get anything in life and they know that there life could be taken any second. I think what Meghan said is true in that the author is showing her readers that we must not be ignorant like the people in the capitol but rather face our problems head on. I feel that this book should be a must read because there is a bigger message that the author tries to get across, and all high schoolers should be a the maturity level that they can handle reading this book.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is a lot of killing in this book, I think most teenagers can easily take this sort of content. We are not so immature that it would put certain ideas in our heads just because we have read this book. The book also explores such difficult issues such as human nature, sacrifice, killing to survive, and others. These ethical questions are important for teenagers to think about, which is why I think this book should be a must-read.
ReplyDeleteWhile it does have a lot of uneccesary killing, I don't know if that quite makes it a challenged book. Yes Katniss has not been trained, but that doesn't make the point that is should be challenged, especially when she ends up winning the Hunger Games. I thought you did a really good job explaining your point of view, but I'm not sure it fit in with your thesis. There might be a lesson within this that we should never let our society get to this point and that is important for teenagers to understand. Also, sorry but this will bug me if I don't say anything, it is Gale, not Gail.
ReplyDelete