Hello again Spartan fans. I was going to watch another episode of the Jamie Foxx Show, but decided instead to blog about the great book I am reading called The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins.
So far I have read to the end of the games. The games where very exciting and made you sit on the edge of your seats until the end, kind of like if your were watching the Jamie Foxx Show. Basically the games go like this: The tributes, or entrants are set loose in a clearing surrounded by forest. Katniss, the main character, escapes the clearing, but not before grabbing a very useful backpack, and almost getting stabbed like O.J.'s ex. She escapes to the forest, her strong point, safely and hides out in a tree. The "careers", or kids that are pros, team up to eliminate the other competition. Although the careers do wreak havoc, they are unable to kill Katniss because she hides in the trees. Eventually she is found, but is able to chase away the careers using a bee hive, although the bees are deadly, not like the weak bees we currently have in America. The bees are called Tracker Jackers. She then meets a girl named Rue, and they become allies, until she is masacred by another tribute when Katniss leaves to destroy the careers camp. Katniss witnesses the killing and in turn stabs the kid up. She then finds an injured Peeta, the guy who is from her district, and you can tell they fall in love. It was probably the most predictable thing ever. They form an alliance and begin a romance. His injuries prove life threatening however, and she is forced to attend a feast to retrieve a healing medicine. The other living tributes, four, also attend and a career is killed, making the only remaining career the careers team leader Kato, who is pretty much a baller. Katniss heals Peeta and Thresh, the African American who killed the career at the feast, is killed when Kato avenges her death. This makes a Final Four of Katniss, Peeta, Kato, and a girl apparently not important enough to get a name, as she is only referred to as Foxface. Since the nameless characters never live long, she is killed by eating a poison apple. The Gamekeepers, or people who run the games, send wild dogs out to round Kato, and Katniss and Peeta, who are now in a huge relationship that they claim is fake, but you know is real since books always have a romance in them. They are rounded up together in the clearing they started out in and are forced to all climb into a giant cornocopia. There is some pushing and shoving and even though Kato is stronger and bigger than a girl and an meager, injured, boy, he is somehow pushed off the edge of the cornocopia and fed to the dogs, who end up to be resurected contestants in animal form. He is killed and Katniss and Peeta seemingly win since a deal was made that if two people from the same district are the last two standing then they will be co-champions. To me this seemed way to predictable since they are the main characters, of course they won't get killed of. However, a change up is thrown when the announcement is made that the agreement is illegal and one of them must kill the other. This seems like a great idea to me, but they are able to get out of it by threatening to both die at the same time and leave them with no winner. They are then announced co-champions. Yikes! To me it felt like
I was getting drowned in a pool of corn, since the ending was so corny, but that was how the games ended.
Although I did just rip this book at the end of the summary, overall I thought it was a good book. The ending of the games came off as a little corny and predictable, but the rest of the book was good, since there was lots of violence and excitement. If I was writing this book, I would have eliminated the romance, something it has a lot of, and added in some comedy, something it was short on, to make it better. I mean why do you think the Jamie Foxx Show is so good? But despite being short on the humor side, this book is still a classic.
I think the author wrote this book to show what government control will be like in the future. I won't go on my Ron Paul support rant like I did last post but there is still a high amount of government control, although no new types are introduced during the games, Katniss always remembers how it's the governments fault that she is here. The author is warning us that the government will be like this is the future.
The theme that this book is centered around I believe is that good things happen to good people. I don't know if this theme is true in real life, but it is the theme in this book because countless times in the book Katniss goes out of her way to help people where as Kato goes around killing people, and in the end look who won. I do think that it is a good theme and message, but it is not always true. She should have centered the theme around something stronger. Some good examples are To Kill A Mockingbird. The theme is to understand somebody you must look at things from there point of view always. Another good example of a strong theme is the O.J. trial. If the glove doesn't fit, the jury must acquit always, and it was a very strong and loud theme, but I am not the author so I should probably stop criticizing her choices.
My personal favorite character was Kato. I know, I know, he is the bad guy, but maybe it is because he is similar to me. I mean strong, good looking, just surround him with some women, give him a basketball jersey and a Ron Paul hat, and have him watch the Jamie Foxx Show and you have me. Of course I am joking, but he is my favorite character. You may ask why. Well, I didn't want to go band wagon and say Katniss or Peeta, so I looked outside the box. Lets look at Kato's story. First, he volunteers to go to a game where he has a one in twenty-four chance of living. That is courage. Then, once he arrives, he is the leader of a fairly large alliance of seven people who are all major contenders for Hunger Games champion, That's leadership. Then, after the food supply is destroyed he and only one other career survive. That is survival skills. Then, when he witnesses one of his team members getting killed, he chases her killer for days until he finds and kills him. That is loyalty. On paper Kato may look like a pretty bad guy, and he has some major character flaws, but I believe, even as the bad guy, he is the best character.
My favorite quote takes place right before the tributes are taken into the arena. Katniss asks for some advice and she is told "Here's some advice, stay alive" by her friend and stylist. This really shows the chaos and tenseness of the Hunger Games while mixing in a little humor as well.
I was fortunately able to understand everything in the book, so I do not have any questions.
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