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Full title The Hunger Games
Author Suzanne Collins
Type of work Novel
Genre Dystopia
Language English
Time and place written Connecticut, United States, in the mid- to late-2000s
Date of first publication September 2008
Publisher Scholastic
Narrator Katniss Everdeen narrates The Hunger Games as the events of the novel occur.
Point of view The story is told in the first person and recounts the narrator’s personal history and experiences. The narrator is mostly objective, but on occasion she will imagine what other characters must be feeling.
Tone Mostly stoic, but occasionally very emotional
Tense Present
Setting (time) An indeterminate time more than one hundred years in the future
Setting (place) Panem, the country created after the governments of North America collapsed
Protagonist Katniss Everdeen
Major conflict Katniss must endure numerous deadly ordeals, navigate complex personal relationships, and learn to control how others perceive her in order to survive the Hunger Games.
Rising action After volunteering to take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games, Katniss has to manage others’ perceptions of her to gain the best strategic advantage possible, then learn to survive inside the arena.
Climax Having outlasted the other tributes, Katniss and Peeta threaten suicide rather than fight one another after a rule change turns them from allies into adversaries.
Falling action Even though she and Peeta won the Hunger Games, Katniss must try to assuage the Capitol, which is angry with Katniss for threatening suicide and forcing a decision they didn’t like.
Themes The inequality between rich and poor; suffering as entertainment; the importance of appearances
Motifs Fire, defiance, hunting
Symbols Mockingjay, Panem, Katniss’s dresses
Foreshadowing Katniss demonstrates her ability to hunt and forage in order to survive; Madge gives Katniss the mockingjay pin; Peeta excels at the camouflage station in training; Katniss saves the berries that killed Foxface.
