After reading Mary Rowlandson’s story of her captivity, I started trying to think of modern captivity narratives and their similarities with Rowlandson’s. My first thought, which surprised me, was “The Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins. This is a very different kind of captivity narrative, but I was curious to see if the series was written in a way that was similar to Rowlandson’s.
The key difference in “The Hunger Games” and Rowlandson’s narrative is that “The Hunger Games” is strictly fiction. The story takes place in the future in what used to be North America. In the story, North America is called Panem and consists of twelve very poor districts which are controlled by a tyrannical government called the Capitol. All of the power and wealth is concentrated in the Capitol, and the people are powerless against it. The Capitol controls everything, including laws, how much food and resources districts will receive, punishment, and most importantly a contest called the Hunger Games. During the Hunger Games, two children are selected from each district to fight to the death while the world watches, hoping to win a year’s worth of resources for their district. (http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/about-the-book.htm)
It is not that there are limited resources. The Capitol could easily provide supplies for all of the districts. The purpose of the Hunger Games is to show the people that the Capitol is in control and rebellion will not be tolerated. So in a sense the main character Katniss Everdeen, who must participate in the Hunger Games, is a captive. She is oppressed by the government, and forced to do something which puts her safety in danger in order to prove to the people how powerful the government is.
The first thing I noticed that the two writings had in common was the reasons why they are popular. Captivity narratives and “The Hunger Games” gained their popularity because they are sensational. They contain acts of violence, which seem to amaze the public. People are fascinated by stories that take them away from their daily lives, even though they can consist of horrendous murders and cruelty.
Like Mary Rowlandson, Katniss is extremely opposed to submitting to what her captors want her to do, but is powerless to truly rise against them. The Capitol could easily kill her, so she has to be secretive in her acts of rebellion. Mary Rowlandson experiences this same dilemma, because though she detests the idea of submitting to the Native Americans, she fears for her life and her family’s lives.
Throughout the series, Katniss follows the plot of captivity narratives exactly and has many similar experiences. Because being captured by Native Americans or being forced to fight for food by an all-powerful government are foreign ideas to us, we are extremely interested to read these kinds of stories. This is made obvious by the numerous awards “The Hunger Games” has been nominated for. (http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/the_hunger_games_69765.htm)
No comments:
Post a Comment