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Using the Mockingjay Pin as inspiration, create your own wearable crest.

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Use the evidence in the text (geographical features, work industries) to determine where each distract would likely be located in America.

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Learn and perform the song

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Print and download Hanging Tree - Tom Stuart. Made by Aligator7.

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Going back through the film, take notice of the fashion in the Capitol. Make notes, and from this you can create your own Capitol inspired costume!

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Unless you were kept out of any news on cinema, literature and the latest cultural releases, you must have heard of The Hunger Games. Even if you don't know anything about it, the name rings a bell for sure in a far corner of your mind. With 4.3 million copies sold in 2010, its popularity tripled after the first film hit the theatres in 2012, an astounding 27.7 million copies having been sold worldwide. The Hunger Games might be just a passing phenomenon doomed to fade away. It probably will be replaced by the next series of adolescent dystopian books revolving around a triangular love affair and portraying the story of a 'one of a kind' teenage girl who will have to save her people. Yet The Hunger Games has something more, something explicitly outlined throughout the books that was probably Collins's main reason to write them - a political message.

The Hunger Games is far more political than any teenage drama written in the 21st century. is not just saving her folks but she must free a whole nation from tyrannical oppression and poverty. For those who don't know the plot, it in a near future where countries and replaced by 12 Districts under the control of the Capitol. To strengthen its tight control over the districts, the Capitol organises games each year where 24 helpless children, 2 from each district, have to fight to the death in a wild arena filled with dangerous animals and cruel tactics to destroy the teenagers, both physically and psychologically. The winner, after killing all the others to survive, has to deal with the pain, the nightmares and the Capitol's control. Forced to appear on camera constantly, physically changed and shaped for entertainment, the tributes all their lives tied to the Capitol and its murderous president. is one of the tributes. She volunteers for her sister and takes her place in the arena. Since that first step, she starts embodying rebellion.

Many have read between the lines (though the message is pretty obvious and explicitly crafted) and interpreted this message in different ways, depending on which political side they stand for or how the issue relates to them personally. Even actors themselves do not always agree on what this message is. But all in all, Collins warns against the destructive force of humans, the unjust social hierarchy and the danger of abusive powers. Not very modern, true. Issues that have always concerned intellectuals, politicians and artists.

Yet her handling of the story is innovative. She creates an imaginary futuristic city, , while at the same time tracing back its historical roots, drawing an interesting parallel with Romans and their arena games, linking past and future and showing how humanity always had, and still has, this violent impulse, this thirst for destruction. She gets inspiration from 1984, Metropolis and A clockwork's Orange while modernising them at the same time. Like these classics, she pushes the boundaries of violence to the extreme. But unlike them, she addresses it specifically to adolescents and has political violence penetrate their literature. A book for teenagers and where teenagers die, so young people can understand the dangers of extremist power and imagine what a world like this would be like. And do everything to prevent it from happening. Of course, the book is 90% exaggerated, but it still manages to illustrate a point and deliver a political, social, cultural and environmental message - we careful not to ruin this Earth and not to make it place. Avoid and the Capitol at all cost.

I. The Political Message

The political commentary of The Hunger Games is made even more accessible to us as it links future, past and present in one big bowl. It is open to . The world of The Hunger Games is much more like ours than any other young-adult literary sensational books or films, like Harry r or Twilight. In those, you always had a touch of surreal, of magic and of fantasy. In The Hunger Games, while some elements are a little fantastical, they are all developed through technology and can find believable explanations that can make them potentially real. the arena and its dangers, the weapons, the different machines...all are very futuristic but not too unreal. Thus we can see a direct relationship with the real world, which makes the story even scarier and the criticism fiercer.

Democracy needs to eradicate tyranny and take over: this is a very easy and very interpretation of the plot, definitely lacking in reflection and failing to consider all aspects of the work. Democracy is never presented in the book as a model to follow. Collins goes beyond the and is not afraid to show the limits of that thinking. She addresses today's people, those in power and the present population. In fact, she addresses the readers directly when she completely discredits our democratic system. Look at this dialogue for instance:

"Everyone," Plutarch tells him. "We're going to form a republic where the people of each district and the Capitol can their own representatives their voice in a centralized government. Don't look so suspicious; worked before."

"In books," mutters.

"In history books," says Plutarch. "And if our ancestors could do it, then we can, too."

Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars and the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them. But this republic idea sounds like an improvement over our current government.

The ancestors are actually us, and as Collins says, we don't have much to brag about between the wars going on , the remaining social inequalities and the environmental crisis. Here, she shows the future repercussions of our present actions and asks the reader to reconsider his own actions and help prevent our planet. Through they don't even trust the republic system efficient, Collins points out the limits of our political thinking and of the measures taken so far. That said, she doesn't completely dismiss the idea either, but registers it only as an 'improvement' over tyrannical power and dictatorship. Even the rebellion doesn't inspire trust and is very aware of their own manipulations. Their leader, Coin, seems too much like the Capitol's president, Snow. If rebellion is also limited, then what is the solution? Collins doesn't give one as every system has its flaws. She doesn't tie her work to any political camp or alliance. As Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University states: ' The Hunger Games' has this feeling of being contemporary and political but without being really clear what its politics are".

So the author doesn't give much of a political solution, yet she encourages the human side to take over. To be and to think more like a human to protect those you love and share among a community. Not much to build a new political system in , true, and the trilogy doesn't really finish on a happy ending note where the new president is actually the best leader the districts ever had and everyone lives happily ever after. Collins doesn't give a political solution because it is impossible to create the perfect system. It is . Her message is more plausible and, even if it will take a lot of time and work, achievable because it concentrates on a global human effort. We need to deal with our flaws one by one, on the political, social and environmental sides.

Some actors in the film have expressed their own political understanding of the book. Donald Sutherland (President Snow) believes in its power to change our politics today and sees in the films the same potential as The Battle of Algiers, a film about a rebellious movement during the Algerian War in 1966 and that has been source of inspiration for insurgent groups :

"Hopefully they will see this film and the next film and the next film and then maybe organize," Sutherland said. "Stand up. They might create a . They might change the electoral process, they might be able to take over the government, change the tax system."

Jeffrey Rights, who plays in the films, is more neutral and praises the series' openness to interpretations. "It's welcoming of the entire political spectrum," he told the website .

"Some people look at these stories and take a 1% versus the 99% perspective, which read something as a left-leaning perspective. I think others look at this and they view it from a more right-leaning perspective as government. Others may look at is as a need for strong allegiance to the 2nd Amendment. So it's non-discriminatory, it's nonpartisan."

President Snow's political structure is all based on supreme authority, government overreach and sadistic entertainment to satisfy the Capitol's and his own thirst for violence. Control is the key word, whether it is through any rebellious movement (even peaceful protests) by the state police, the Stormtroopers, or through constant TV recording. His tight control of everything that happens in gives him exclusive authority and security. He made himself the strongest and forced people to bow to his games and enjoy his form of entertainment. Thus he embodies all the tyrants and dictators that have lived in their most extreme brutality. Yet he also stands for more. He believes that 'even the strongest cannot overcome the Capitol' and warns against the rebellion's intentions. Is this just blind faith in his own authority and the strength of his political system, or is he suggesting that whether he lives or dies, nothing will change? That someone as thirsty for power and abusive will replace him, and that system is inescapable? Probably a bit of both.

War is on everyone's lips, especially in the third book where a civil war takes place, the people against the Capitol's tyrannical authority. Collins said herself : "I don't write about adolescence. I write about war. For adolescents." She specifies the major theme of her books and the target she wants to reach - teenagers, to prepare them for their coming of age. In Plutarch's words, war is something humans carry within themselves, nurtured by this self-destructive impulse and this constant need to unleash violence, thus it repeat.

"Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?" I ask.

"Oh, not now. Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated," he says. "But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, ."

Plutarch's words are not very comforting or encouraging but they are true. Still, he holds on to the little hope that it might end because hope springs eternal. Because Collins doesn't want to make everything bleak. Hope to shake people and by president Snow: "A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. Hope is fine, as long as it's contained." By Catching Fire, he's modified his stance: "Fear does not work when there is hope." So again the idea of hope and the collective as the baby steps towards freedom. Free from fear and oppression. At least for a while.

II. The Social Message

The Hunger Games, as its name indicates, is all about hunger. Not only metaphorical hunger for political freedom, social ascendance or self-realisation, but hunger. The districts are hungry and main preoccupation is to keep her family well-fed. Her father died in a mine accident, working to feed his wife and daughters. She hunts in the woods illegally to earn money. Poverty is everywhere, in each corner of streets. Her first meeting with was a product of hunger. He threw her a piece of bread (and fell in love with her) when she was starving on the pavement. Hunger is poverty and of social inequalities, and the entire trilogy on the gap between wealthy classes and poor workers. The people in the Capitol as lazy, overly indulged people, taking benefit from the works of those in the districts, the industrious ones. Extravagant, conspicuously consuming, partygoers, they never care about what's going on elsewhere, believe in Snow's lies and have no notion of wastage. They drink little concoctions to make themselves sick and then eat some more while others die from starvation. They are completely out of reality and responsibility while hunger persists. And hunger always signals uprising and near revolution (the French Revolution started mainly due to exasperation at the king who let his people starve).

Paul Bond reports on The Hollywood Reporter that Occupy Wall Street focus on Collins' portrayal of the extreme gap between rich and poor in the most black-and-white way, with no allowance that the rich might have earned their wealth. They all depend on the modest ones which makes them so vulnerable in the face of Snow and unable to understand the horror behind the system. James Pinkerton, contributor for Fox News, relates it to our political and social system, where a central political core grows rich from the toil of the masses. The books have led to a whole campaign launched by the socially activist group, the Harry Potter Alliance, a campaign called 'The Odds In Our Favour' (article on the Guardian's website by Liz Bury) Inspired by Collins' work which they believe is contemporary America, the movement promotes health-care access, voting access, food security, houses for the homeless and employment. Thus Collins's message has been heard - people address each problem together by creating more alliances and launching new projects. Of course, actions were already taken and a dystopian book is not needed to strive for social equality but it helps. If the books raise consciousness and lead to concrete actions, then art has fulfilled its job and Collins has succeeded in establishing her message.

Many see in Collins' work a feminist argument which is undeniable. A girl with equal opportunities as men revolts against the patriarchal society represented by Snow (although she also kills Coin at the end, the female leader of the rebellion, suggesting that her revolt is more political and less gender-based). She adopts masculine traits associated with power and heroism . She possesses strength, athleticism and prowess at hunting. At the death of her father, she takes on the role of feeder and money provider through hunting, associated so far to masculinity. Volunteering for her sister is a way to fulfil the role of the father. After the reaping, when she warns her mother to take care of Prim and not to cry, her is far more than daughterly. Thus the first part of the first book emphasises on masculinity, on her male-oriented language, activities and ability to kill, to a point that if were a boy the basic storyline wouldn't be that different. But her feminine side appears when she is at the hand of the Capitol, her sexuality emphasised by her gorgeous and sexy outfits but also by declaration of love. Being cut off her family and friends, far from the woods, kept in isolation, viewed as a form of social castration. She to as the girl on fire. She is given a name and a role by the Capitol's patriarchal rule and she back to the social role she has to adopt as a woman - seduction and Yet proves more as she constantly has to prove her worth to others. To the when she shoots an arrow in an apple to prove her talents. In the arena. Saving . In TV shows. During the Victor's Tour and even in the fights during war as the . Collins also takes sisterhood as a major theme, not only through Prim and but also through and Rue and their feminine alliance in the arena, based on trust and intuition strength. It seems feminine qualities alongside masculine ones, possessing both high makes her strong enough to carry her burden but also strong enough to defeat anyone on her way to Snow...

III. The Cultural Message

Social inequality and political authority constant presence of the media and television clips, controlled by the state and carefully edited to the Capitol's decisions. Each information and modified to serve the Capitol's best interest. Each day, the population with a series of lies, lies on their situation and on District 13. They ignore the people's plights, celebrate their suffering and force children to get killed in arenas for 'entertainment'. And families have to watch without a word of protest. Actually, everyone has to watch. Television becomes the centre of their world, their reality. A highly composed, edited and fake reality, but they to believe in it. And if they don't believe it, they still have to accept it. So Collins denounces the abuses of authoritarian governments which infiltrate people's privacies and bombards them with propagandist images as a mean to brainwash them and tighten their power. Freedom of expression has disappeared, such as creativity, arts and literature: they are too dangerous.

And this is a direct result from our relationship to the media. We all know that governments and the media often work together, the latter being corrupted by the former (take House of Cards for instance, it explains it all very well. In fact, many parallels drawn between The Hunger Games and House of Cards, and it would be interesting to explore these similarities). Media has also its own control over people, a control that is not linked to politics but to consumption. , and the victors are all turned into products - fashioned, moulded, embellished, costumed, made-up to look as extravagant and sensational as possible to arouse audiences, especially within the Capitol. Their private lives on display, their love story commercialised and the becomes a franchise especially in the rebellion's hands. The Hunger Games is live action or reality television. Jennifer Lawrence, playing in the films, sees in the trilogy a warning against entertainment and reality shows:

"I was watching the girl getting divorced, and that's a tragedy for anyone," she said. "But they're using it for entertainment, and we're watching it. The books hold up a terrible kind of mirror: This is what our society could be like if we became desensitized to trauma and to each other's pain."

has some difficulty dealing with the cameras and to lie about her life and her feelings for the public's content, but also to save her skin. The more she looks appealing, sympathetic, beautiful, charming, funny and willing to in the Games, then the more sponsors she will have. She depends on economic strategies and wealthy sponsors attracted by what she has to offer as a product, a brand, a commodity. Here, Collins denounces our consumerist society based on image, appearance and selling yourself. Even to save your own life...

IV. The Environmental Message

The environmental message is more present in the books than in the films, but you can still get the idea through love for forests, the districts and the amount of wastes provoked by the Capitol. Like people, the environment is just a tool used by the Capitol to create fear and expand its control, like the staged environmental changes in the arenas. Nature , animals turned into mutts (in other words, killing machines). They and then thrown away, left to damage, waste and pain. Destroyed. Interesting parallels drawn with the ecological crisis, the extinction of certain species and the destruction of natural habitats. Here, it is the people who , their houses bombed and their children killed. Soon, it will be the humans that will be extinct. We know already that nations and that the Capitol in what was before North America. the Capitol and the districts, everything is very industrial and modern: skyscrapers in the Capitol, mines and factories in the districts. Yet some natural landscape persists, like the woods that are so dear to where sing to support her. But the woods are forbidden. Nature that is not controlled by the Capitol is forbidden.

What has provoked the end of our world and the Capitol and 12 Districts? It is never clear, but a lot of hypotheses tend to it is due to catastrophic climate changes that we experience since a few decades. It's not a far-fetched idea, and even Collins agrees:

'It's crucial that young readers are considering scenarios about humanity's future, because the challenges are about to land in their laps," Collins said. "I hope they question how elements of the books might to their own lives. About global warming, about our mistreatment of the environment, but also questions like: How do you feel about the fact that some people take their next meal for granted when so many other people are starving in the world?'

And we come back to hunger. What sparkled the fire. A problem that is not specific to the books. A problem that is probably the cause of our world's destruction and the Capitol. As Joe writes in ThinkProgress.com," feeding some 9 billion people by mid-century in the face of a rapidly worsening climate may well be the greatest challenge the human race has ever faced. The Hunger Games makes that challenge a literal and hyper-violent one." Thus Collins's concerns in actuality, in our everyday reality, and her futuristic universe is not as distant to ours. And as she imagines what might happen to humanity - which is really the main interest of the series, not the love story or the writing style - we relate it to our current political, social, cultural and ecological issues, with this constant thought at the back of our heads: if we don't get past them, then we might end up like . A bit extreme, yes, but plausible in some ways. Collins has demonstrated through the whole series that the idea is not completely delusional or impossible, and we careful. And although she doesn't give any concrete solution, her books have already inspired movements to take action. She emphasises the idea of togetherness, of a change of moral values and a of human qualities. Let's not forget our human side, not the destructive one but the better one. The one that pushes to act to protect her loved ones. Solidarity, love, family.

Works Cited

Bond, Paul 'The politics of the Hunger Games', The Hollywood Reporter

Burnett, Bob 'The politics of the Hunger games', The Huffington Post

Bury, Liz 'The Hunger Games fan campaign against real inequality', The Guardian

Schwarzbaum Lisa, 'The Hunger Games, Action-film feminism is catching fire', BBC News

What do you think? .

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The Political Message of The Hunger Games

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Unless you were kept out of any news on cinema, literature and the latest cultural releases, you must have heard of The Hunger Games. Even if you don't know anything about it, the name rings a bell for sure in a far corner of your mind.

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Lessons plans around THG book

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Australian Curriculum Year 10 English Unit / Lesson Plan / Resources: Divergent, The Giver and The Hunger Games

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Nothing is more engaging for fifteen year olds than watching bad-ass teenagers kicking authoritarian butt. I have two Year 10 English classes this year and both feature die-hard Hunger Games fans, so I decided to target teen dystopian texts for our novel and film studies.

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Drama: Using the character you developed in english, create a scene demonstrating their heroic personality.

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Use engaging videos on TED-Ed to create customized lessons. You can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch

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English: Create a character profile, describing characteristics that make them a hero.

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Use engaging videos on TED-Ed to create customized lessons. You can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch

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Design a map of a society in which the population is divided into clear sections by class or social standing.

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What is Dystopian Fiction?

Most people understand what a "utopia" is but "dystopia" isn't quite as commonly known. Basically, dystopian fiction completely goes against what a utopia is all about. Where a utopia pictures the perfect society and an ideal world, dystopian literature is more nightmarish and dark, as it explores political and social structures.

Some of my own personal favorite novels are dystopian fiction. What makes this genre so interesting is its exploration of some of the darkest parts of the human psyche and society both within the political sphere and in social norms. For the most part, its main characters are subjected to a loss of freedom, little happiness, and/or no justice in a society that has taken the guise of a utopia. In cases like George Wells' infamous 1984, they can even be read as warnings for people to be wary and vigilant of the world around them.

Jules Verne and Dystopian Fiction

One of the earliest examples of dystopian fiction comes from Jules Verne, who is more famously known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Before these infamous works, Verne wrote his dystopian novel entitled Paris in the Twentieth Century in 1863. In it, he writes about a young man in a world of fast cars, towering skyscrapers, and even a worldwide communications network who cannot seem to find happiness and inevitably comes to a tragic end. Interestingly, he did not actually publish this work within his lifetime. He was advised against it for the sake of his career and the manuscript sat in his safe until his great-grandson discovered it in 1989. It wasn't published until 1994.

What do you think?

History of Dystopian Literature

The history of dystopian literature goes way back, beginning with the birth of the term "utopia." During the Tudor dynasty in England, Sir Thomas More (also known as Saint Thomas More) wrote his novel, Utopia, in 1516. In it, he focuses on a traveler who describes the political organization of the island country of Utopia.

More was clever, as he created the word "utopia" and names within the novel with allusions and meanings that covertly added to what he was talking about. "Utopia" comes from the Greek ou-topos (no place) and eu-topos (good place). So it is a place that is good and yet does not exist. The traveler's name, Raphael Hythlodeaus, alludes to the archangel, Raphael, who is the agent of truth while his surname means "speaker of nonsense" in Greek. This coincides with the fact that the traveler's words are true in that he speaks of a good nonexistent place but that in the end it is all nonsense since a true utopia is impossible.
H.G. Wells
Due to the unattainability of a utopia, many authors have not pursued this type of fiction since More's time and instead turned to its complete opposite to focus their literature on, the dystopia. One of the earliest and most infamous authors of dystopian fiction is H.G. Wells. His novel, The Time Machine (1895) is a perfect example of a dystopia. In it, a man creates a time machine and goes into the future. There he finds that humans have become divided into two distinct races, the upper class humans and the Morlocks. Years without conflict have left the humans uneducated and desensitized while Morlocks have become more aggressive and violent. It is a statement on class systems and, like any classic dystopia, shows how even a society built with good intentions may inevitably end disastrously.
Ayn Rand
Another high roller in the realm of dystopian literature is Ayn Rand. Her novella, Anthem (1938) is a very distinct example of this genre. It features a man, Equality 7-2521, who lives at an unspecified time in a dark future where individuality has been eliminated and technological advancement is nearly nonexistent. He is writing in a tunnel about his background and the society he is surrounded with as he has come to realize he is cursed with the desire to question and dream, rather than conform. Eventually, Equality renames himself Prometheus as he learns about the past and wonders why humanity gave up so much and if they will regain it.
Suzanne Collins
A more recent example of dystopian fiction is Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (2008). Unlike the novels of the past within this genre, Collins does not provide readers with a blaring lesson or political/social statement to walk away with. Still, it features a character, Katniss, who is living in a post-apocalyptic world under a government that has complete control over the twelve districts that surround it. It also has a very distinct class separation between lower and upper class that even goes so far as to keep them separated by mountains with no contact whatsoever, beyond the Hunger Games. Another difference between this novel and many other works of dystopian fiction is that the class system and political organization seems to become better for the lower classes at the end instead of worse. However, Katniss, to the disappointment of many readers, still ends up unhappy despite so much work to make things better.

To sum it all up, dystopian fiction comes to us as a reaction to Sir Thomas More's Utopia. Since around the nineteenth century to today, it has remained a popular genre but has also changed from being straightforward about its political or social ideals to being a little more subtle. Most people read The Hunger Games as merely another work of young adult fiction, without seeing its dystopian side, for example.

Literature Examples of Dystopian Fiction

This is one of my personal favorite novels that I first read back in high school for class and fell in love with immediately. Like most novels within dystopian fiction, Huxley's work is set in a society that presents itself as a utopia but suppresses individuality and even emotion. The population is limited by government control. Everyone is unable to reproduce and all babies are factory made and raised by the government. Then they are divided into four distinct classes: Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, based on the genetic traits, such as intelligence, that they are provided with at birth.

Huxley's society is full of sex, drugs, and overspending alongside the drive to never be alone. This ensures a highly entertained and spendy society that is fearful of individuality. Its main character, Bernard, dares to question how things are run and brings John, from the Savage Reservation that is outcast from society, to his world. John loves Shakespeare and soon discovers that the people of London are nothing like he thought. His attempts at isolating himself from civilization prove futile and the story ends tragically.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Published in 1960, A Canticle for Leibowitz is about a boy named Brother Francis Gerard in a world 600 years after a nuclear war that has left it almost completely destroyed. In this piece of dystopian fiction, the culture has turned against knowledge and advancement through technology, as a result of a war they believed was caused by these traits in society. Books are destroyed, no one reads, and anyone who attempts to attain knowledge is destroyed by the mob called the "Simpletons."

Years earlier, a man named Isaac Edward Leibowitz founded the Albertian Order of Leibowitz. Originally, Leibowitz was a Jewish electrical engineer for the U.S. Army but he converted to Roman Catholicism after the war. His order aims to preserve knowledge by hiding books, memorizing, and copying them. Overall, Miller's novel is divided into three parts total, with a complicated story ending in death and destruction as history, inevitably, repeats itself.

1984 by George Orwell
This classic piece of dystopian fiction was first published in 1949. It is about a totalitarian society in the future called Oceania that is ruled by The Party. In it, we read of Winston Smith and his adventures as he rebels against he intellectual confines of society and finds romance with Julia, only to be caught, tortured, and re-educated. Many words and phrases such as "Big Brother" and "thinkspeak" are from this novel and are commonly used even by those who have no idea where it comes from. Some read it as a warning about the potential power the government can have over people.

Ayn Rand: Dystopian Fiction Read as Prophecy

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
I tried reading this novel recently and couldn't get through it. It's long and it requires a lot of work from its reader but I'm told it's worth it. Atlas Shrugged is considered one of Rand's best works. Published in 1957, this novel was the last and the longest she ever published.

Atlas Shrugged is a difficult piece of dystopian fiction to briefly summarize. Basically, it is about Dagny Taggart's efforts to repair Taggart Transcontinental as she is hindered by the fact that many of the big business owners are retiring and disappearing. Taggart does everything to make reparations possible. Eventually, the story leads to romance as well as political chaos as the collapse of the country commences.

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore
I know there are some of you may not consider comics to be literature and I would agree, but there are plenty out there that most certainly are more than just comics and deserve a spot in that capital L for literature slot. V for Vendetta is an example of just that. With a movie adaptation to boot, it is a part of the dystopian genre that is just as full of political and social commentary as its predecessors.

Moore's comics are about a society in the UK from the 1980s that is ruled by a totalitarian government. V is a rebel who manages to fight back against the restraints of government, including bombing Parliament and executing three officials for crimes committed. His name, V, stands for vengeance and so much more as he works to fight for the people.

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Dystopian Fiction: From H.G. Wells to Suzanne Collins

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Most people understand what a "utopia" is but "dystopia" isn't quite as commonly known. Basically, dystopian fiction completely goes against what a utopia is all about. Where a utopia pictures the perfect society and an ideal world, dystopian literature is more nightmarish and dark, as it explores political and social structures.

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Different vocab activities that use words from The Hunger Games!

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“The Hunger Games” Vocabulary from Chapter 1 - Vocabulary List | Vocabulary.com

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In a dystopian future a young girl is forced to fight for her life and the life of her family in Suzanne Collins’s hugely successful book series. When you finish this list, move on to the Chapter 2 words.

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Set a date where the students can bring in canned food to donate to a local food drive to help your community!

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Think about what information Suzanne Collins gave us that hints to how America turned into Panem. Write a short piece of writing in the style of your choice to express your thoughts.

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Analyse the techniques used to here to motivate the Allies against the Nazis. Think colour, layout, words, imagery etc
Think about what propaganda might be around in Panem, and using similar techniques used in the shown (and other) war propaganda, and get into groups to create posters for the Hunger Games universe.