The Hunger Games

The only girl to be born on the Lawrence side of the family in fifty years. Her parents have been married for over thirty years.

For her role in Winter’s Bone (2010), Lawrence learned to skin squirrels, chop wood, and fight.

Plays guitar.

Lawrence graduated from high school two years early in order to begin acting.

Lawrence was discovered by a photographer while visiting New York with her mom in 2005, which led to her landing an agent.

Is the second youngest Oscar nominee for best actress in a leading role. Only Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider (2002) was younger.

Fan of Jeff Bridges.

Appeared in two Sundance Grand Jury Prize winners in a row: Winter’s Bone (2010) and Like Crazy (2011).

One of People magazine’s Most Beautiful People in the World 2011.

One of Variety magazine’s Top Ten Actors to Watch 2010.

Voted No. 10 on the 2011 Maxim list “Hot 100” women.

The Hunger Games are becoming the next Twilight Series. All of them are adventurous and thrill packed, creating a much more desirable series than a vampire falling in love with a human.  Suzanne Collins’ still included some romance in the series, but it is much more realistic and toned down. The Hunger Games takes place in post nuclear war times and only twelve districts are left. District One is the richest, and District Twelve is the poorest. They all have their own resources that they have to produce to the Capitol, which strictly runs every District. Each year, the Districts must force a boy and a girl to into the Hunger Games to fight to the death for supplies for a year. Obviously Districts with more money are able to train their ‘tributes’ but Districts like Twelve are unable to provide any means of create worthy opponents. However, Katniss Everdeen has trained herself and fights all the way through the games and makes it out with her friend Peeta Mellark. Together, they defy the rules of the game and break the tradition of the game, angering the Capitol.

In the second book, Suzanne Collins creates an even more action packed story line. Since last years Hunger Games were the 74^th, this year calls for something new and unexpected, like a Winner reunion. Each winner from previous years, are called back to the arena to duke it out for their District once again. Of course, this has never been done before and was a way for the capitol to have another shot at killing Katniss and Peeta. By killing them, the Capitol hopes to shut down the rebellion started by them. It was only made possible because Katniss and Peeta defied the Capitol and won the Hunger Games together through a loophole (you’ll just have to read the book to find out how). Yet again, Katniss and Peeta make it out alive, along with all the other tributes by working together. This action only adds fire to the rebellion and in the third installment, Mockingjay, the Districts work together to bring down the Capitol.

Suzanne Collins is a science-fiction writer. More specifically, she deals with teen/young adult readers. Her stories are adventurous and highly intense, even her only children’s book has been considered extreme. I mean, who would not be freaking out when the power is shut down. However, she makes her stories entertaining and keeps the reader coming back. Quite a lot of people have heard of The Underland Series, but up until a year ago, no one had ever heard of The Hunger Game Series. Now, it has become a New York Times best seller, and is on the headlines everywhere. Following its rise of popularity from word of mouth, Collins decided to create a film based off the books. After her success in Winter’s Bone, Jenifer Lawrence was casted to play the main character Katniss, which drew even more attention to the series. As more of the cast was called for the rest of the characters, the book’s popularity grew substantially and is now in production coming out March 23, 2012.

During this time, many people have fallen in love with the series, some say that it is far better than the Twilight series. This is probably because it has ten times the action packed feeling, but with way less ‘gushy’ parts. Some fans of the series are even saying that it is on the same playing field as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. Regardless of the readers’ personal preference, there’s no denying the validity of how popular the books are becoming. They have been rated as a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller. The movie is still along ways away, though fans are dying to become part of the Hunger Game Trilogy. 

In her forty-nine years, Suzanne Collins has written many books, in such a short time frame. She was born in 1962, and during her childhood traveled around due to her father being in the Air Force. In 1987, she moved to New York City, where her inspiration for The Underland Chronicles began. She was intrigued by Alice in Wonderland, however, instead of being in a rural area and finding a rabbit hole, she created a story in the city, falling down a manhole.  Towards the end of the series, Collins decided to write a children’s book called When Charlie McButton Lost Power. Following her new found love for children’s book, Collins created the story of The Hunger Games, where twelve districts send a boy and girl each year to fight to the death for food and supplies.

The idea for The Hunger Games came from reality TV and the coverage on the Iraq War. From there the ideas came together to create a story of war  in a reality show and a government that advocates the cruelty. There was nothing specific in her life to create this urge to write about a messed up society. One coincidence, however is the fact that in The Hunger Games, the main character’s father is not present through the entire series.  This may be hinting at her father’s sporadic absence while in the Air Force. Suzanne currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, two kids, and two cats.