Story Breakdown: The Hunger Games

We’re back with the story breakdown series! We’ll be doing one every month. This is the second entry. Check out the first one from May 2018 - Story Breakdown: Finding Nemo.

This week, we’re talking about the mega-popular movie and book: The Hunger Games. While both the books (started in 2008) and the movies (started in 2012) were a series (3 books and 4 movies), we’re going to stick with the first book/film for our story breakdown here. And for the sake of my typing, I’m going to refer to the book + movie combined, and simply call it ‘story’. Even though the book and movie are different experiences, the core of the writing and storytelling process is based on the same characteristics: plot, characters and execution.

The Hunger Games series remains one of the most popular ‘Young Adult’ books ever sold - over 65 million copies in the US alone. The four films based on the series have made close to $3 Billion at the Global Box Office.

So yeah, this is a popular story. But more importantly, it’s a thoughtful exploration of the effects of war and violence on young minds, and the extent to which 'reality' TV can go if ignorance becomes the majority. 

It also happens to be one of the few science fiction films that is told from the perspective of a teenager who happens to be one of the most well-rounded and inspirational female characters written in recent history.

So let’s talk about how the story achieves that.

The Plot

Imagine this: you’re a parent of a teenager in a country where the rich are the only people who matter, and every year, there is a chance that your child could be selected to be put into a death match along with 12 other teenagers, which is basically a death sentence.

Now, imagine being the teenager who’s little sister gets selected to be the ‘tribute’.

And now, imagine being one of the elite rich people who watches this death match with ignorance, detachment, and sometimes even ignorance.

That is the plot of The Hunger Games. A world where many people suffer, and a few lucky ones watch the world - and humanity - burn from TV screens.

Turn the news on today and maybe this doesn’t sound like far-fetched fiction after all.

Writing a story that deals with serious topics, and doesn’t shy away from talking about the impact of that on children, is not easy.

So, how do you do it?

First, observe reality. Find something you don’t like seeing. Find something you think, should not happen. Find something to shine a light on. Find something to make people feel something.

What do you see? Children starving and dying away in a town or country that isn’t yours? Check.

Alright, now you have a purpose for your story: show people that young children starving to death or being blown up is not okay.

Second, heighten that reality. Change the circumstances and the surroundings of your topic. Instead of nameless children dying randomly by cruel dictators and people, create a fictional reality where children are literally picked by name from an ‘unlucky’ draw. Call them ‘Tributes’ because they must be the sacrifice your society has accepted to provide in order to continue their survival (in the case of the helpless). Also, because distraction is the first rule of the exploitation club, make the rich people get obsessed with this child-death match the way people in the real world get obsessed with Big Brother or Big Boss.

Third, make it engaging. Engaging doesn’t have to mean entertaining - because watching children die shouldn’t be entertaining. Oh, but wait, doesn’t the news show stories of people dying? Doesn’t the news have advertisers? Doesn’t the news make money by showing sensational stories? Okay, well, in that case. Show that. Show that death is entertainment. But only to the viewer, not the participants. Keep your focus on how your characters react to your plot, and stay targeted on their journey. Make your characters so worthy of caring for, that the audience is drawn to them enough to root for them to win this death match.

Fourth, create a better reality. This is where your story comes full circle. Make a story where the protagonist of your story starts off as every woman who just wants to survive and protect her family, and then make her the hero who cares about the problem that you want to address. Through her, you can give your audience a journey that may make them care about the problem in their own reality.

All of this only works if each of your characters has a role to play in telling that story. So let’s talk about them now.

The Characters

Katniss Everdeen, the main protagonist of this story, is the reluctant but brave hero that the world needs. Just like all of us, she’d rather not die, but when it comes to the safety of her loved ones, she’s willing to fight. That’s something we all can relate to, right?

Step 1 Achieved: Make a protagonist the audience can relate to.

Let’s jump to the other two key characters: Peeta, and Gale.

Now, here’s the thing about secondary characters: their primary job is to support the objectives you’ve set for your protagonist’s journey.

For Katniss, both Peeta and Gale represent two different approaches to the problem.

Gale is the person who knows exactly what he has to do to survive and protect his family in this harsh, horrible world that they live in. He will go to any length to do that. However, unlike Katniss, Gale also cares a lot about his whole district’s people, and by extension, all the helpless people that Katniss would not allow herself to think about, because it’s too much.

Through Gale, Katniss learns about the person she can choose to become - the ‘bigger’ picture hero - the person who puts others in front of herself, and would happily sacrifice herself for a stranger if it would have an impact on the main goal which is to save your people.

Peeta, on the other hand, represents the raw goodness that people can possess - a person who will happily put himself in danger, even if it is very much possible that this action will have no effect or any impact in general to the bigger picture.

Katniss sees this ‘goodness’ as a weakness - a fool’s hope. A sentiment many people share when they look at the news and just say that the World is going to shit, and no amount of do-gooding can beat the evil that resides in the hearts of those who run the World.

Peeta’s character is the one who is put into the games with Katniss, so that over the course of the story, she can go from the Gale side of her moral-compass-scale, to the Peeta side.

These three characters bring together a serious story about World-politics and altogether a horribleness to something quite personal, powerful and even hopeful.

So let’s talk about that final part, and how the storytellers involved (the writer of the book and the director of the film) achieved that.

The Execution

This is where the story wins most of its awesome points.

Because it makes you so engrossed in what’s happening, you have to remind yourself that these are teenagers who in our world wouldn’t even be allowed to drive or drink alcohol.

Because the execution of a good plot depends heavily on the point of view presented by the storyteller. By telling the story from Katniss’s point of view, you’ll be able to think about how you would act if you were in her shoes. Would you care for those in need, or save the one's you love, or stay quiet when you see injustice?

The storytellers here certainly had a hopeful and positive goal in mind, which is why Katniss’s character becomes the messiah of the people of her country.

And this is also why the final scene shows Katniss committing suicide - because killing even one person, would mean that she is no different that the people watching The Hunger Games. That, if you don’t stand up against the oppressors, you’re a co-conspirator. That, ignorance is not an option when children are dying. And testing Katniss’s faith in 'the-Peeta-way-of-living' is put to an even bigger test in the subsequent series when Peeta is brainwashed to be the opposite of what she taught her to be.

This story is able to make you care about a problem that actually exists, and it happens to do so by showing you that the future is in the hands of the young minds of today. So, let’s stop them from dying or becoming insensitive to the suffering of others.

Not bad for a ‘young adult’ novel, right?

I hope this breakdown helped you see this story from the point of view of the storyteller! And if you’ve been waiting to get started on that really interesting story about something that you don’t like seeing in today’s world… 

...you know where the button is.

Start writing now!