Spoiler Alert: Because my posts are going to focus mainly on using The Hunger Games trilogy in your classroom, there will be spoilers. So please be warned if you have yet to read the novels! And if you haven't read them, what in the world are you waiting for!?
In an
earlier post I mentioned there were many ways teachers could relate the material in the novel
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins with World War II, Hitler, and the Holocaust. The purpose of this post is to explore some of those connections students can make or you could point out.
As fellow teacher Carol Ann pointed out in a
previous comment, one of the first connections we may make is to ancient Rome and the gladiator games where people would watch others fight to the death for entertainment. And there are certainly plenty of allusions to this time period and society to support those connections. Suzanne Collins admits she was inspired by Roman gladiators for the basis of the Hunger Games in an online interview on Scholastic Books'
Hunger Games website.
I do like to have the students make connections to ancient Rome when they learn early on what the Hunger Games are. But as we get further into the novel, I also like to connect it to more recent events/times, such as the Holocaust. I think it helps students realize how easily we can be manipulated into believing murder is acceptable, and even necessary, to sustain or better our way of life. Adolf Hitler wanted to establish a "
New Order," which included domination (and extermination) of many groups of people. As a result, millions of innocent people died in the Holocaust, including over six million of Jewish faith.
While the Holocaust may not have been a public form of entertainment like the Games, the millions of children, women, and men who died were killed by those who were either forced to kill or it was their job and they willingly did it. These murderers may have been the victims' peers, or their neighbors, and maybe even their friends. Did they want to kill them? Did they do it because they had to or because it meant their life was spared? Or were they brainwashed by the political propaganda they were fed and believed they were superior to the Jewish people and other minorities? As you force your students to look at both perspectives, they should see that Katniss and the other tributes are put into the same position many German soldiers and citizens were: kill or be killed.
. If you've never read the book, chances are you may have received an email with a few of the "lessons" people (ages 5 to 95) have shared. Some examples are:
