Hunger Games View Point Essay Sample

The article of the website that had the supportive and discerning views are listed in the works cited portion of this paper. The author was both critical and appreciative of the novel and compared it to other dystopian novels of the current age.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins evoked a mixture of feelings when I read it. It was difficult to separate the book from the movies that are currently out, but this paper focuses only on the book. There are many ideas within the book that may be frightening to younger children. The main one is death as the book involves many instances of death, including Katniss having to kill animals and a Lynx which was friendly to her. Another frightening idea would be the separation of children from their families. In the case of Katniss’s sister almost being sent to participate in the games. Although the main portion of the book does not deal expressly with the death of Katniss’s father, it is another theme that children might find disturbing. Depending on how the student’s family situation are, this may affect them adversely.
These books are not evil. I don’t think books are inherently evil and should not be banned from schools. Although there are some mature themes, namely children killing each other, that is not the point of the book. The point is to show a hero who overcomes odds through intellect, handwork, perseverance, and is successful in the end. It shows children that sacrifice, hard work, thinking, planning, and helping others will benefit you in the end. These are all good moral lessons that can be taken from these books. These books do not focus on the evil of subjecting a people’s to killing each other but rather uses it as a vehicle for relaying these moral lessons.
There is definitely educational value in the Hunger Games. Not only is there inherent education value in the book but also some other value as well. The most apparent is that the book is a socio-political novel than can enable children to learn about the sometimes harshness and realist attitudes many countries in the world have. The themes although mature, are easy to understand and the children can apply them to their understanding of the world. Furthermore, the book highlights the importance of human life and the value of human life. The people in the capitol believe they are above the humans in the other districts. This of course is not true and they are just all humans. This enables the children to experience this sense of elitism in a manner that they can understand. There is not only educational value, but also moral value to this book as well. The children can experience this dilemma and experience the sometimes unfairness of the world through the book.
Lastly the book shows that anyone can make a difference, even a humble hunter from the poorest district. This inspiration definitely teaches the children of the merit of hard work and overcoming adversity.
I would incorporate this book into the classroom as I would any other book. The lesson plans I could develop around this book are vast. Firstly, since one of the book’s main themes is destruction of the old civilization because of global warming, it could be tied into some environmental lessons on the state of the world today. That way the children are able to enjoy the book while they still are learning about the current world around us. It would be an interesting idea to encourage the children to apply what they learned to their understanding of the novel. Similarly, the book talks about a social hierarchy. A lesson plan could center on social classes in a way that the children could understand and made clearer with the reading of the book.

Works Cited

Green, John. "Scary New World." The New York Times. The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Green-t.html?pagewanted=all>.