AWEJ. Special Issue on Literature No.2 October, 2014 Pp238-249
Social Values as Magnets of The Hunger Games: a Sociological Approach
Anna Sriastuti, M.Hum.
Faculty of Language and Literature of Satya Wacana Christian University
Central Java, Indonesia
Abstract
Literature is part of human’s life. Literature and humans are inseparable since one may influence the other. A writer can refer to a certain current issue as an inspiration for his work as a work itself can be inspiring its readers. Therefore, enjoying literature can be a mean to expand imagination that is to let readers or audience imagine and compare the imaginary story with the real life and to gain some moral lessons, insights, and experiences through it. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a novel worth considering since it has been in USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists consistently and sold into 56 territories in 51 languages. The plot of The Hunger Games (2008) is quite simple. It tells readers about a ‘life or death’ competition among young representatives of twelve districts to entertain people of the capitol and to get better life support and respect for the winner. The changing of rules and situations of the games cannot be separated from the characters presented in the story, which can also be defined as the changing of social values of what considered to be important or not in a society. The social values refer here are values or Americans since the setting is a country that rises up out the ashes of a place that was once called North America. A sociological approach will be best used to analyze these social values.
Keywords: moral lesson, insights, society, social values, sociological approach