The Hunger Games
As with most films that are adapted from a novel, The Hunger Games novel provided more detail on the relationship that people had with food, however, the basic premise of the Hunger Games storyline is that heroine, Katniss and her family live in a constant state of food insecurity. The residents of District 12 are not allowed to go beyond the electrified gates of the district without the threat of being captured by government officials or killed by wild animals. “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.” Despite that fact, the film opens with Katniss outside of her district, in the woods, hunting for food. Katniss is only sixteen years old, but she has taken on the responsibility of providing for her family since her father was killed in a work accident. Katniss’s mother suffers from sever depression and is incapable of caring for her two daughters. Katniss and her friend, Gale, regularly risk their lives to gather fruits and vegetable and to kill animals to eat and to sell. The first time that we see actual food in the film, Gale shares with Katniss, a piece of bread that he traded for a squirrel. Katniss excitedly puts the bread up to her nose and asks if it’s real. In this case, food is motivation enough to risk life and freedom.
On the day that we are introduced to Katniss and Gale, the residents of District Twelve are to gather up their children for day of the reaping. This is the day that government officials select two children between the ages of 12-18, from each district to participate in the Hunger Games where the fight to the death for on live television. There is a general method for each child to be entered into the reaping, however, poor families usually opt to have their child’s name added more times in exchange for food. Here, parents often sacrifice their children’s lives in exchange for basic food items.
Katniss’s baby sister’s name is pulled in the rendering. Katniss volunteers to represent District Twelve in the Hunger Games in her sister’s place. Shortly thereafter, she is taken by train to the Capital. Everything in the film is in shades of blue and gray until Katniss arrives on the train. The first scene in the train has a buffet style spread that has varieties of pastries, fruits, and beverages in vibrant colors. Even the food back in District Twelve were in muted tones. Food is plentiful during the training for the contenders and more is to come for the winner of the Hunger Games
Early in the throes of the Hunger Games, Katniss is trapped, high in a tree while her foe patiently waiting for her to come down so that they can kill her. A young, spry girl named Rue helps Katniss to escape and nurses her back to health and Katniss shares with the child some meat that she trapped. The meat is offered in exchange for saving Katniss’s life. We see, again, the value of a life in relationship to food.
In the Hunger Games, the contenders from the wealthier districts have more food. A constant theme in the film is that food is the equivalent of money and power. In effort to level the playing field, Katniss destroys her enemy’s food supply. When her foe realizes that he’s lost the food supply, he becomes so enraged that he snaps the neck of the person tasked with guarding the food. Katniss later joins forces with Peeta, also from District Twelve, once they learn that there can be two winners–granted that they are both from the same district. Katniss reflected on a time that Peeta gave her a loaf of bread from his family bakery and in return for this payment she saved his life several times throughout the games.
The key difference between the novel and the film, is the ability that the novel had to provide more detail about the extent to which Katniss had to go in order to get the food to feed her family. I am glad that I was able to read the novel before watching the film. In this case, I understood that Katniss was not just fighting for her life in the Hunger Games, but she was fighting for her ability to survival back home in District Twelve. The Hunger Games served as entertainment for the people of the Capital. The officials kept their citizens in a constant state of food insecurity which drove them to the point where people were willing to kill for food. Welcome to the Hunger Games.