RYLEE ANSCHUTZ

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins is a set of books of young adult novels about young children chosen by chance, called “tributes,” who are subjected by the government to either kill each other or be killed in an annual game instated under the guise of entertainment. The series touches on heavy topics such as the inhumanity of government leaders, drug addiction, forced prostitution, murder, class inequality, psychological trauma, and overall morality. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a young teenager forced to face these issues to survive. Readers of the novel get an in-depth look into her thoughts and experiences regarding the manipulative tactics the media and the government use to hide information from citizens, especially during times of violence and war. These topics are critical to the storyline and the overall purpose of the books; however, the adaptations significantly changed the themes to appeal to a wider audience for monetary purposes, with millions of book copies sold and billions of dollars earned at the box office in their aftermath. To achieve this, the filmmakers marketed films toward romantic relationships, reduced the warning ratings, and deleted characters along with their storylines, resulting in critical political and social themes becoming lost to the viewers.

There is a dichotomy between the marketing of the films for fans’ entertainment and the plot of the book openly showing children fighting to the death for the purposes of entertainment. Readers see that throughout the book, the tributes of the Games are used as amusement for the capital rather than being treated like a human. There is irony in this as the films bank on viewers wanting to see the movie, and its actors, for such entertainment purposes. In James Keller’s essay about meta-marketing, he writes that The Hunger Games is a “heavily meta-cinematic film adaptation that allegorizes the construction and manipulation of the narrative within the narrative” (Collins 23). The mass marketing for such a film is necessary for the production to actually make money, but the marketing team’s use of these tactics are heavily criticized throughout the entire series.

The films’ marketing has also shifted the focus of the films towards romantic relationships over the moral dilemma of young people fighting for their lives in such a game. This is seen in the first novel of the series with Peeta and Katniss and is especially seen in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray. Because filmmakers made this shift towards the romanticization of characters and left the social and political consequences of a totalitarian government to be a backdrop to the romance, the message of resistance and systematic injustice was diluted. This marketing tactic, while useful to get people to watch the film, overshadows the intended psychological and moral themes of the story as viewers of the film are forced to be more invested in the romantic relationships and their outcomes.

Fig. 1. Official Still of Trailer 2 of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” from fan-owned website Panempropaganda.

Above is an image of Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray in the official trailer of the movie. It appears as if the two characters are engaging romantically; however, that cannot be further from the truth. In the book, Coriolanus views Lucy as “his girl. It was a given that Lucy Gray belonged to him” (Collins 172). The readers get to see Coriolanus’ internal monologue, but viewers of the movie do not. They do not know the extent of his possessiveness or his lack of love for her because of this, but also because the marketing of the film heavily relied on the characters being love interests.

In the world of The Hunger Games, the capital serves as a totalitarian government over the districts. There are twelve districts each with specializations in different industries, but one through four are known as Career Districts. The Career Tributes of the Games, train their entire lives for them and are encouraged to volunteer when they come of age. Any Career Tribute is already at a significant advantage in the Games given that they train and eat regularly compared to other districts that are ridden with poverty and simply live to survive. The main protagonist, Katniss, is from District Twelve, the poorest district that is usually the most disadvantaged within the Games.

The film adaptations throughout the series take out information that is central to the themes of the novel, and producers make questionable choices when it comes to portraying barbarity for ratings and monetary purposes. Ben Fritz, in a Los Angeles Times article about the potential success of The Hunger Games, stated, “filmmakers themselves faced a careful balancing act in loyally adapting the books while still earning the PG-13 rating needed to draw a broad audience and turn a profit on a movie that cost nearly $100 million to make.” Due to the PG-13 rating of the films, a significant amount of the brutal way in which people are killed and tortured is omitted. The rating creates less of a political and social impact on young audiences as the death scenes are muddled to fit it. This is especially significant as those details in the book are vital to showcasing the violence of the Games and, subsequently, the government.

For example, a character named Cato, is one of the final tributes, with Katniss. Cato is a tribute who grew up to believe he would gain fame and popularity by killing people and winning the Games. However, this is not a reality for any tribute put into the Games and Cato quickly realizes the true brutality of it before his death. As the main candidate to win, Cato kills many people to reach his goal, but he eventually meets his demise by getting attacked all night by mutts that resemble his fellow dead tributes. These mutated mutts were sent by Gamemakers, who regularly control the different aspects of the games to make them as entertaining and bloody as possible to the capital citizens. In “The Hunger Games,” Katniss describes his death as, “the cold would be torture enough, but the real nightmare is listening to Cato, moaning, begging, and finally just whimpering as the mutts work away at him” (Collins 339). This torture of Cato, and subsequently Katniss and Peeta, is not portrayed in a similar manner in the film. Because of the rating, Cato is not tortured by the mutts but is pity-killed almost immediately by Katniss. Though his death is gruesome, it is important to show as viewers of the film do not perceive his death as a portrayal of the corruptness of an authoritative government and its manipulation tactics, whereas readers get an in-depth view of not only this but also Katniss’ realization of the cruelty the Capital will inflict on people. His death was significant to the overall themes of the book because it demonstrated that no one is a winner when it comes to being a political pawn of the government.

Another form of censorship within the series would be Avoxe’s in Catching Fire. These characters are erased from the films, even though they play significant roles in the novel. In an article about their significance to the novels, Monica Coman states, “Suzanne Collins made clear how important the Avoxe were, as they represented the community who had already tried to rebel against the government that controlled them.” Avoxes are people who have had their tongues cut out of their mouths, are enslaved, and abused for the rest of their lives by the capital. The two main characters that turn into Avoxes go by the name of Lavinia and Darius, and they are pivotal characters within the book as Katniss realizes the extent the capital will go to silence her and anyone else challenging the dictatorial regime. The film completely took away both character plots and, subsequently, lessened the effect of showcasing the cruelty of the Capital.

The censorship of characters and their significance is quite prevalent in many of the book-to-film adaptations within the series. Avoxes are not the only important characters cut from the story; however, directors and producers must make cuts to make a movie marketable and watchable. The Avoxes represent punishment for rebellion and the overall theme of the inhumanity of leaders. Moreover, making the Avoxe people Katniss knew adds another level of intimate cruelty that authoritarian governments subject their citizens to. When Katniss first realizes they are people she knows, she is stunned into silence, “I’m not aware of much at dinner except that Darius and the redheaded Avox girl are our servers” (Collins 219). They are both characters that she knew, Darius more so, and seeing them mute really affected her. Readers get an insight into the psychological damage this causes Katniss, as well as her being reminded that the government can and will control people. The deletion of the characters censors this and makes viewers of the film unaware of such a pivotal moment in the story.

Overall, the marketing and production of films alter what the author originally intended to portray in a novel. Through different approaches to creating either book or film, lines are blurred when it comes to navigating what to maintain from the book and what to take away from it. Narratives, themes, and characterization — along with the censorship of all of these, are changed along the process. With marketing tactics to help improve viewership and box office numbers and significant plot cuts to adhere to a normal film length and a PG-13 rating, the film adaptations for The Hunger Games series lost a significant amount of thematic depth. By portraying the core of the storylines as romantic rather than survival-based, the films failed to portray the true relationship between the citizens and the capital. The brutality of the deaths offers major plot development and readers’ comprehension of the message within the books, but the films’ omission and dilution of the extent of the brutality trades this for fitting into a broader rating. It will be interesting to see what cuts and additions the producers make to the film adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping. Collins is expected to adhere to the same social and political themes as the rest of the series in this novel, and readers and viewers must be able to see her arguments about oppression and violence. This is especially critical with the current state of the world right now; young people will suffer a significant cultural and societal loss if filmmakers censor this film in the same way it has the others above.

Works Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. Scholastic Press, 2009.

Collins, Suzanne. The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes. Scholastic Press, 2020.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008.

Coman, Monica. “1 Hunger Games Line Connects to a Dark Book Storyline The Movies Left Out.” ScreenRant, 1 Jan. 2024, screenrant.com/hunger-games-cut-tongues-line-avox-connection/

Fritz, Ben. “‘Hunger Games’ Ads Coyly Don’t Show The Hunger Games.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2012, www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-mar-15-la-fi-ct-hunger-games-marketing-20120316-story.html

Keller, James. “Meta-Cinema and Meta-Marketing: Gary Ross’s ‘The Hunger Games’, an Allegory of Its Own Making.”Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 35, no. 2, 2013, pp. 23–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23416334

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Official Trailer 2.” YouTube, Lionsgate Movies, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxW_X4kzeus

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Official Still.” Panempropaganda, https://www.panempropaganda.com/gallery/the-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes-official-stills/