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Loading...7 Great Books That Inspired The Hunger Games (Slideshow)
- by Ashley Lauren Samsa
- September 17, 2012
- 11:30 am
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
As is the way with many dystopian novels, individuality is not only frowned upon, but punished in “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. In this novel, the governing body wants people to be happy, so love is forbidden, everyone must take daily grams of soma to ward off depression, and babies are born in test tubes. While Huxley, like many dystopian writers, foreshadows quite a few of the conveniences we have today, he draws to our attention the drawbacks of taking this too far.
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Read more: classic books, dystopian novels, Hunger Games, literature, teens
Top Image Credit: GoodNCrazy, Other Images: Open Library
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Recent Comments from Causes
The alternative is to let Pedang suffer indefinitely. I believe this to be the right thing to dao.
Rubio is an ass. To be more specific Rubio is a dumb ass.
It's scary out there, thank you for the article.
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+ add your ownThis isn't exactly a cause..
But it was still interesting to read!
There was a book I read in University, well two of them, can't remeber what they were though. One was where a society was split in two, the women running the cities, and the men fought. As you read though it it seemed like the men were in control, but the end was actually quite a twist.
There was a second one about a race of beings who were living in a utopia. Then humans found them, and men found them quite attractive, to the point they tried to force themselves upon them. It ended up these being developed a defencive mechanisim whereby any man who slept with them died.
"Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” is a children’s book, but that doesn’t mean that teenagers won’t enjoy it"
Huh, The Giver was actually book of the month in a book club for teenagers I was in back in the 1990's. I was in my late teens when I read it for the first time, and I was blown away by it. It was the best book I had read at the time, and I didn't find it childish at all. Upon re-reading it in my early 30's, I can only say that it's still one of the best books I have read.
The sequels "gathering blue" and "messnger" aren't the same level. I'm looking forward to "Son" which will be published in October.
thanks
Citala sam,dobre su knjige, nisam bas ljubitelj limunada gdje
heroina spasava svijet.Da cemo doci u situaciju da se borimo za komad
hljeba to vjerujem.
Thanks Donald T. for reminding me about "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. If that isn't dystopian literature, then I don't know what is. But not sure I'd recommend it for youngsters. The book is actually difficult to read until you get used to the language Burgess used to write it in (lots of invented slang). The movie is not for the faint of heart (it includes explicit violence and sex) but every once in a while, I just have to watch it again.
The best speculative and sci-fiction writers make us think about what's already happening, and what "could" happen. So many predictions and speculations from great writers have come true.
The Hunger Games is an amazing book, but dystopian doesn't mean a perfect society, it means the opposite.
Anything to get kids to read is fine by me!
Thank you for sharing.
WT everliving F is this crap list.
None of these books are the literature that the author listed as the basis or inspiration for the Hunger Games. This is an American political-centic list for those who haven't been paying attention, not a what inspired anything sort of list.
Read Battle Royale for the unofficial inspiration, and then dive into Roman and Greek mythos for the official inspiration.
DUH, research ?
"Collins has said that the inspiration for The Hunger Games came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq. The two "began to blur in this very unsettling way" and the idea for the book was formed. The Greek myth of Theseus served as a major basis for the story, with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and Roman gladiatorial games provided the framework. The sense of loss that Collins developed through her father's service in the Vietnam War was also an influence on the story, with Katniss having lost her father at age 11, five years before the story begins."
Why must you push your spin on someone else's work, LAMESAUCE.
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