The Rebellion of The Mockingjay | The Hunger Games

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks, left) and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, right) by Fathom Entertainment 

The Rebellion of The Mockingjay

Summary

The movie The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross and based off the best-selling novels by Suzanne Collins, follows the story of Katniss Everdeen as she volunteers to take her sisters spot within an annual televised fight to the death, the Hunger Games, where the victor is to be promised wealth and fame at the cost of murdering their opponents. I'm sure we have all seen the film, or at least heard of it, as its popularity exploded amongst young people and adults alike due to its high stakes and characters you can’t help but root for—but quite obviously, there are many underlying messages woven into the story.  

The Hunger Games is set within the dystopian society of Panem, where we are led to witness how the wealthy people of the Capitol exploit the poorer surrounding districts, making the members of these districts work ruthlessly for them to power their almighty first district. The Hunger Games themselves are only one way in which the Capitol members control the poor, a brutal game where children from the districts are forced to fight and murder each other as punishment for a past rebellion, ringing as a dark reminder of the power of the Capitol. 

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence)

Themes & Relevance

Watching this movie felt as though it was a critique of how societies become blinded towards violence once it becomes masked as a form of entertainment, in this case how the games became reality TV for Panem to consume. This leads to real world concerns regarding how powerful people within our society can manipulate marginalized groups through censorship, media and economics. The role of Katniss Everdeen as a female protagonist challenges traditional gender roles by representing her as a symbol of resistance and rebellion in a political manner—we see how Katniss has taken on traditionally male roles as the provider of the family, meanwhile Peeta Mellark, the male tribute, is portrayed as her reverse, being more emotionally expressive.  

Katniss’s refusal to conform to the capitols gendered expectations to be passive and submissive represents her attempts to reclaim her sense of agency. Her refusal to kill Peeta at the end of the film shows her further resisting the system in a way which redefines who is holding the power—the power has now shifted, slipping as we see Katniss gaining the love and respect of the lower districts who are watching her fall for and care for Peeta, and of course for Rue. We see Panem rooting for Katniss because she’s like them—they could be Katniss, a girl who is simply trying to survive and is trying to do so in the least damaging way possible.  

We have two defining characters, with Katniss Everdeen and the ominous President Snow—a young woman, and an older man who entirely contrast one another. While Katniss is a champion for the oppressed, we see Snow as being the oppressor who is actively working to maintain the games. Women against men is a feeling which is coming to feel decreasingly dystopian and more real to our current world, in both our world and the world of Panem—we see it in government, we see it in world leaders, we see it in laws and policies governing women's rights over our own bodies. The allure to a movie such as The Hunger Games, is that it could become our reality, and characters such as Katniss and Snow, already exist within our world. The question is, out of the two of these characters, who are you rooting for?  

Final Thoughts

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson)

The Hunger Games may be perceived as a warning, or perhaps it is nothing but an exciting form of entertainment... however, regardless of this the movie presents us with many relevant conversations. The film poses a raw narrative of an unfair reality of innocent people being brutally oppressed by a classist government. Whether you liked the movie or not, we should still be considering the fate of our future as a whole.

Works Cited

"The Hunger Games." Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 2012.