You Are What You Cannot Eat: The Novel The Hunger Games as Social Criticism on the Issue of Hunger

The novel, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, can be read as social criticism on the issue of hunger. The novel draws on a wide range of sources, both contemporary and historical, for inspiration, and utilizes effectively the possibilities of the genre of dystopian fiction in order to shed light on the issue. What makes the social criticism of The Hunger Games unique is that the theme of power plays a central role in the novel’s treatment of the issue of hunger. In this paper, the focus is on exploring from a Marxist perspective, the various ways in which the issue of hunger is approached in the novel, looking at how it is related to economical and societal structure of Panem, the relationship between the consumer and the worker, wealth and class distinction, its reflection in the variable food culture and what it reveals about the ideology of the society, how hunger is used as a control mechanism to keep the power balance in Panem unchanged, and what role the main heroine, Katniss Everdeen, plays in the social criticism. As the novel takes on and effectively handles the issue in its rich and detailed dystopian world, it delivers a fascinating and intriguing exploration. With this, it transcends its role of being only a novel. Instead, it becomes both an absorbing and well-written piece of fiction and carefully crafted social criticism. And in this twofold purpose lies the novel’s greatest strength