Ashley Perry December 1st, 2018
The Hunger Games versus Lord of the Flies: Civilization Meets Savagery
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Lord of the Flies by William
Golding share striking, similar and prevailing features. Both of these books
have characters with comparable personalities, traits and motives. The two
adventures are set in a corrupt society with an absence of civilization and
savagery takes over. The unifying motif is the underlying savagery and
desperation to live that stands out within each character when survival
mode is activated. In both literatures, the characters are power-hungry and
struggle to surpass everyone to become the real leader, but this only leads
to the corruption and destruction of humanity. William Golding portrays
that human beings are capable of evil things when forced into harsh
situations, which is parallel to the catastrophic events occurring in Collins’
novel, The Hunger Games.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Hunger Games by
Suzanne Collins are symmetrical versions of the same narrative, containing
an in-depth exploration of the behaviours in human nature. These
adventure novels include many themes, such as civilization, savagery,
power and order. In Lord of the Flies, Golding explores the dark aspects of
human nature. He includes war, power and savagery in the boys’ world.
“He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was
swallowing him up.” (page 51). Jack’s transformation from civilized bully to
savage killer has begun. He's obsessed with hunting at the expense of all
else, even rescue. Comparatively, in The Hunger Games, Collins
incorporates power, containment, control and violence by incorporating a
government organization by the name of the Capitol; a dictatorship that
holds total political and economic dominance over Panem, enforcing its
rule through an army of Peacekeepers, capital punishment, brainwashing,
the fear of nuclear devastation and the Hunger Games.
“When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would
blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country,
Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood
this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my
Ashley Perry December 1st, 2018
tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one
could ever read my thoughts.” (page 6).
Free speech, we learn, is not a given in Panem. Katniss censors herself
because of the fears her mother has of the government. She clearly shows
the flaws of being powerful when the members of the Capitol have evil
intentions to place children in a life or death situation by examining their
strength and survival skills.“I volunteer!” I gasp. “I volunteer as
tribute!” (page 22). Katniss volunteers to serve as the female tribute for
District 12 in the Hunger Games. She has years of experience hunting (and
therefore killing) and is far less sensitive than her sister, making her more
likely...
