Hunger Games

In the book the Hunger Games, It was entertaining to read because it was kind of like the apocalypse.  Since so many people think it is coming this December, it was an interesting read.  Only the first book was made into a movie so far.  The similarities and the differences were very evident. 

The story line was the same in both genres.  It represented districts that had to pay their respects to society by the Capitol selecting two names out of a bowl to fight to the death between other districts. The movie and the book both portrayed this similarity.  In your mind, the characters looked different in the book than when you actually watched the movie.   Both the book and the movie had the emotional factor going and it played on your heart strings. 

In the book, one of the significant differences was when the mayor’s daughter gave Katniss the mockingbird pin.  They were friends and this was a very important element in the book.  In the movie, Katniss’s sister gave the pin to her and it lost a bit of its representation.  Originally, Katniss purchased the pin in the movie and gave it to her sister to keep her safe during the choosing of the boy and girl in the district. Then the sister gave it to Katniss when she volunteered to go to the Hunger Games in her stead.   This little bit of information was small, but it played a big role in the book.  The mayor was the figure head and so the mayor’s daughter giving it away was more of a strong point in the plot. 

Another difference was when Rue was being sung the lullaby in the book.  In the movie, this was omitted.  The book really played on this since Katniss reminisced about her father, who passed away in the coal mines. Songs were sung to her when she was young.  It seems that in the movie, maybe because of a time factor, this was omitted.  It did lose some of its value not being in the move.  Rue was a comrade of Katniss and this was an emotional part of the book.

Both the book and the movie shared the same storyline.  The story did not alter from the main ideas.  The themes were the same along with how society was and how the people interacted. 

The reasoning behind the film producers changing certain things in the movie could be that the writers of the movie thought that certain things had to be deleted or changed a bit to spice up the movie.  No real ideas on why it would be changed.  Maybe the writer of the book sold her book to them but thought that not all could be made into a movie.  Another thought could be the time factor of the movie.  If everything played out exactly the same as the book, the movie would be 5 hours long!!!