"The Hunger Games": Do dystopian stories affect our youth's view of the future?

The answer to the hunger pangs

Oh you said “Hunger GAMES” :)

About “dystopian stories”

Every generation has them! 30 years ago youth survived http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max] Mad Max
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After] The Day After

Have a Whopper after the film and you will sleep well!

Amid Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games, the female authors are very clever strategists.

I read all three books in The Hunger Games. The first was a page-turner. The second was so and so. And the third was a flop.

But millions upon millions upon millions are to be made in the movies.

On “children killing other children”

First of all my kind of movie would be The Artist, Sweet Land ¹ or The Queen.

I doubt I would view Hunger Games if it were free and on TV.

A thoughtful book that deals with some of the same themes as H/G would be The Lord of the Flies. Youth should read this book. Later a low budget B/W film <sup>2

1</sup>: Beautifully filmed in SW Minnesota
²: Pretty good film. I have it on DVD.

I don’t think the concern is so much about teens, but preteens. My kids all read The Lord of the Flies for high school, but I wouldn’t give it to a 5th grader.

I teach 7th grade in a public school. I had 9 students (out of my daily 65) who were absent Friday because they had gone to see the midnight premiere on Thursday night.

I think our whole district and several neighboring ones didn’t have school yesterday- I stopped at the local mall, and the parking lot was full of school buses, and the mall was PACKED with middle and high schoolers.

We went on field trips when I was a kid, but a movie never qualified as one.

[Susan R] I think our whole district and several neighboring ones didn’t have school yesterday- I stopped at the local mall, and the parking lot was full of school buses, and the mall was PACKED with middle and high schoolers.

We went on field trips when I was a kid, but a movie never qualified as one.

I remember going to see “Oliver!” as a kid as a field trip. :) ( Yes … I’m showing my age…) .. But it was NOT a midnight premiere .. and it was a “special” late morning showing if I remember correctly because we had to take a sack lunch to eat on the way home. I suppose it was because it was based on Oliver Twist .. and I suspect the movie company and/or theater had some “deal” ..

I do think allowing any kids to miss school because they’ve gone to a midnight showing is a tad extreme .. But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprise.. :~

I would say letting kids go see a midnight premiere is a tad bit extreme - especially on a school night.

Well, there’s theater and then there’s theater- and the latter must be said through the nose in a haughty tone of voice while looking over the tops of your spectacles. :p As a kid I was under the impression that movies were frivolous entertainment, while a musical or play was sophisticated and educational.

We have a policy that if the kids want to see a movie based on a book, they have to read the book first. We could do a midnight movie if we were so motivated, ‘cause then we’d just sleep in. The privileges of homeschooler are many and varied. :)

I agree with Bro. Peet that dystopian fiction is nothing new, and it does seem like young people are attracted to the genre. The nightmare worlds and no-win scenarios are great conversation starters- I encourage parent to read YA fiction and discuss them with their kids.

I just finished the first book. I thought it was pretty good, but definintely not for pre-teens. Probably good for teens. I didn’t see much content or language that one wouldn’t find in a darker CS Lewis novel. But the ethical dilemmas will take more maturity to process and handle. I read a review by Doug Wilson talking about false ethical choices in the book. “There are certain things you just don’t do because the Ten Commandments were not suggestions, and the game is over.”

I think it’s a little simplistic to say it’s about kids killing other kids. It’s really about being the last one alive in a harsh environment, which may involve killing. But if I were a Christian in the games, I might simply try to evade being killed and wait it out, or try to defend other kids as long as I could. Anyway, just like anything with kids and difficult ethical situations, kids need to exercise their ethical muscles in a safe environment, AKA with parents and mentors helping them through it.

As a side note, praise God his Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, where the kind of evil in the book would not go unpunished.

[Susan R] I don’t think the concern is so much about teens, but preteens. My kids all read The Lord of the Flies for high school, but I wouldn’t give it to a 5th grader.

I don’t think we can compare reading violence with seeing violence - even if the book and the movie are the same material. A visual portrayal has a significantly higher impact, imo, than a literary one.

I deal with people (adults and kids) daily who are caught up in the Hunger Games right now, so I decided to see the movie. I was revolted. My wife and were trying to decide after if the best word to describe our take was disturbed or disgusted.

While I understand the concept of the dystopian genre, I fail to see anything redeeming in this material. Scripture warns about and defines wickedness, but it never presents it for entertainment, nor does it present wickedness in such graphic detail even for instructional purposes. And even if it rose, somewhere, to the level of graphic portrayal in the movie, written portrayals do not impact people in the same way visual portrayals do. Furthermore, scripture never presents things in a moral vacuum for the receiver to interpret independently. I cannot find a single descriptor in Philippians 4:8 represented by this film.

I fail to understand how a Christian could recommend this material, as book or movie, to anyone.