Week 4: The Hunger Games

 This week on feelingsonbooks.com I read the second half of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and watched the movie version of The Hunger Games for comparison. I still have the same feelings as last week that this story and the movie are not my cup of tea, so to speak. I did not enjoy the content of making children fight to the death for entertainment of the rich pompous people of the capital all because of political disagreements of the past. Why should the children keep paying the price for the past over and over again? The games make the killing seem like a normal acceptable thing. I do not agree! 

    Although the content was not my favorite, I did find a few differences between the details of the book and the movie. One of the most obvious differences, and the one I noticed the most was how serious Peeta’s injuries were that he received in the arena. In the book, Peet’s injuries caused his leg to be amputated and replaced by an artificial prosthetic leg. The movie, on the other hand, never showed that his leg was amputated at all. It was like all the wounds magically healed with the use of the medicated salve sent by their sponsors. 

    The gold Mockingjay pin came from that Katniss wears as a token from her district during the games. In the book, Katniss receives the pin as a gift from her friend, the mayor’s daughter, Madge, during the visitation hour after she volunteered to take her sister, Prim’s place as the girl’s tribute on reaping day in District 12. In the movie, Katniss gets the pin as a present for her sister, Prim, in the Hob market. 

    Next, the movie portrayed Katniss and Peet’s romance as more genuine, where in the book Katniss is constantly questioning whether Peeta is using the idea of their “relationship” as a way to gain favoritism of the sponsors of the capital in order to keep himself alive. This made it immensely more difficult for her to fully trust him. 

    Finally, the book was extremely more violent descriptively than the movie. At one point in the book, Katniss temporarily loses her hearing due to an explosion that happens close to her in the arena. The descriptions of Avoxes, who are political prisoners who have their tongues cut out, and of the wounds the tributes sustained were much more graphic in the book than in the movie as stronger language and gore would have affected the viewer rating causing those audiences who could view it in the theaters to be more restricted.   

    These are just a few of the differences I noticed between the Hunger Games book and movie. What are the differences you noticed? Were they the same as mine, or did you find others? Next week, I will be starting to read the book Divergent Veronica Roth. I hope to see you then!