The Hunger Games and the Murder of the Minotaur

Last week a new American classic exploded and I must confess its success is Greek to me. Author Suzanne Collins and the marketplace would agree.

The Amazon sales page for The Hunger Games calls it dystopian literature, so I grabbed my Oxford dictionary. That word’s not there. However, I found out that dis means the reverse of, deprivation of, or expulsion from something. Utopia means a place (topia) so perfect it does not (ou) exist. Could they be referring to the American dream?

As a child Collins loved Greek mythology and the story of Theseus and the minotaur dug itself into her mind. He was the son of the King of Athens, who was being bullied by Minos, the King of Crete, who lived across the strait. Every time he got bored he sent his Navy to attack the Athenians. Unwilling to put up with this any longer, the King of Athens proposed a deal. He would send seven healthy girls and seven healthy boys to King Minos every nine years so he could feed them to his minotaur. The offer was accepted, since King Minos loved his minotaur and imagined how he would enjoy such a fine feast.

Prince Theseus  knew it was wrong to send small children to be eaten by a monster even to stop a war. He also knew a deal was a  deal so he told his father he would go as the seventh Athenian boy the next time and kill the minotaur to bring an end to the wars.

In The Hunger Games a 16-year-old girl, Kateniss, and a boy, Peeta, live in a country called Panem (formerly North America) where the people had rebelled against the Capitol. Each year since then, in revenge, the rulers demanded a girl and a boy from each of the 12 districts take part in games on live TV, fighting to the kill until just one survived. All citizens were required to watch. Like Theseus, Kateniss saw that what was going on was wrong and made up her mind to do something about it. When her younger sister was chosen to go, she took her place.

 Evidently the American people, especially young adults, were thirsting for such a story. Twitter went viral with the news that, for the first time, a Kindle e-book had sold over one million copies. The film version opened in movie houses and was projected to take in $140,000,000 by the end of the weekend.

Collins’ words are fuelling the conversation of a generation. Some of the questions to ask are: Have we become an entertainment society? Is it too violent? Are the people the rulers of the American democracy?  As audience and fans, what power do they  wield? Is reality TV the villain?

It’s encouraging to think that the Greeks and Romans did survive past the days of King Minos and the feeding of Christians to lions in the forum. Theseus did kill the minotaur and Kateniss and Peeta need not be counted out either. This is just the begining of a trilogy. The good news is that, by the end of The Hunger Games, they have still preserved their humanity.