A Ramble about The Hunger Games

I recently re-read the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Even though it is written for teenagers, I am still of the opinion that it's not really fit reading for kids. The scenes of brutality, brutal murder, and the realistic descriptions of severe trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome, I believe, are really more than kids should have to handle. But that is just my opinion. Aside from this, it is a thought provoking series of books that I would recommend to adults who can handle such graphic scenes.

The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in a dystopian future where all that is left of civilization in North America is a country called Panem (the inhabitants not knowing anything about the rest of the world or that there are or were other land masses), which is separated into thirteen “districts” plus a central capitol district. In order to punish those districts for a failed rebellion against Capitol rule, once a year two “tributes” are selected by lottery from each district in order to compete in a brutal, survivor like reality show called “The Hunger Games.” Each tribute is expected to assassinate the others until there is only one left standing, who is crowned the winner. The truly horrific part of it is that all the tributes are children between the ages of twelve and eighteen.

The story of the trilogy centers around a girl named Katniss Everdeen from district twelve who volunteers to be a tribute in order to spare her sister's life. Already a capable hunter who poaches game to feed her family, she is then dragged into the surreal world of the capitol for a week or two before she is made to fight for her life, and also the life of her fellow tribute from twelve, Peeta. Throughout the books, she has to constantly deal with, not only the arena combat and the horrors within from other tributes and the game masters who throw new and fiendish ways of torture and death at them, but also the nightmares and PTSD which results. In all, throughout the books, she face the arenas three times, twice as a tribute, and once while fighting her way through the streets of the Capitol in another rebellion against the government. She is brutalized, and becomes brutal herself. At times, towards the end she buries herself in morphine addiction. Often she just tries to run and hide, and she can never seem to feel safe, even at the very end when it is all over and she has begun to rebuild her life with Peeta.

In the books, there were many other “tributes” who had “won” the Hunger Games from years previous, and also suffered through both the emotional scars of the arena, and the ongoing torment from Panem's dictator who coerced them to do what he wanted through threats to their loved ones. One prominent character, Katniss's mentor, tried escaping the torment through moonshine after the Capitol murdered his family. Another, a tribute from a seaside district, was forced to prostitute himself for the dictator who held the life of his only love over his head. The only former tribute who seemed even remotely free was one who had no one left and had detached herself from everything and everyone.

After I finished reading them, I picked up my copy of volume one of The Philokalia (Faber and Faber, 1979) and began to read from St. Isaiah the Solitary, who was a monk at Sketis in Egypt in the late fourth century. Among other authors, he also describes the spiritual life of the practicing Christian as a constant battle against demons, and gives practical advice on dealing with it. He writes:

“If you find yourself hating your fellow men and resist this hatred, and you see that it grows weak and withdraws, do not rejoice in your heart; for this withdrawal is a trick of the evil spirits. They are preparing a second attack worse than the first; they have left their troops behind the city and ordered them to remain there. If you go out to attack them, they will flee before you in weakness. But if your heart is then elated because you have driven them away, and you leave the city, some of them will attack you from the rear while the rest will stand their ground in front of you; and your wretched soul will be caught between them with no means of escape. The city is prayer. Resistance is rebuttal through Christ Jesus. The foundation is incensive power.” (p. 22)

He also writes:

“I entreat you not to leave your heart unguarded, so long as you are in the body. Just as a farmer cannot feel confident about the crop growing in his fields, because he does not know what will happen to it before it is stored away in his granary, so a man should not leave his heart unguarded so long as he still has breath in his nostrils. Up to his last breath he cannot know what passion will attack him; so long as he breathes, therefore, he must not leave his heart unguarded, but should at every moment pray to God for His help and mercy.” (p. 25)

As I was reading from the Saint, I realized that life in this body for the practicing Christian is akin to the Hunger Games. Those living in Panem, whether they realize it or not are slaves of the dictator. Some are willingly complicit and even profit from it. Most don't want to be, but suffer under it and obey for fear of losing what little they do have. The only way out is through death. From the time Katniss volunteered to be a tribute, she went into it believing that she wouldn't make it back out. Her main attachment to that world was her little sister, and the reason she volunteered to begin with. Because of her attachment to her sister, she never ceased to come under attack from some direction as people used her and abused her for their own agendas and selfish ends. She could never let her guard down, or could ever feel safe about letting her guard down.

Our spiritual enemies are even more insidious than the ones she faced, and they do not stop. Ever. Not while we're in the body. If they do retreat, it is often just to get us to drop our guard long enough for them to attack in force and wedge their way in. The practice of His Truth requires constant vigilance, and the truth is that, even if we are successful in most of them, the assaults can leave a person dazed, confused, and off balance. They can cause depression as well. Our enemies want us as far from Jesus Christ as possible. They want us acting according to our passions and desires, and not according to Christ at all. They are immortal, and don't get tired or take breaks. The only thing which restrains them from a completely devastating assault is the hand of God, who only permits them to attack enough to keep us from dropping our guard and to harden us in this kind of warfare.

Like Katniss, when we really begin to renounce our selves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus Christ, we then enter a brutal arena where it almost seems like everything is trying to scare us or destroy us in one way or the other. Staying alive in this case means staying focused on Christ, and remaining in Him, and in our renunciation of our selves, desires, possessions, and everything else which has to do with us. And the longer we go, the more of a target we become, and the more we must practice to remain in Him. As long as any part of us holds on to those things which we have renounced we are plunged back into the arena and are made to struggle.

St. Isaiah also says:

“So long as the contest continues, a man is full of fear and trembling, wondering whether he will win today or be defeated, whether he will win tomorrow or be defeated: the struggle and stress constrict his heart. But when he has attained dispassion, the contest comes to an end; … Do not think then, then, that you have died to sin so long as you suffer violence, whether waking or sleeping, at the hands of your opponents. For while a man is still competing in the arena, he cannot be sure of victory.” (p. 26)

Katniss was eventually freed from the Hunger Games, but she still had to deal with the emotional and psychological scars for the rest of her life. It was only after the murder of her sister, when she had finally lost what she cared about most, that she was able to begin rebuilding her life, and do what needed to be done, though not without tremendous pain.

Our Hunger Games as practicing Christians don't ever end. And if it feels like they have, and you've been left alone, be on your guard because the enemy has just maneuvered themselves to bring you down from both sides. When you feel the most safe and secure is when you're in the most trouble. Ultimately, the only characters ever truly freed from the Games were those who died, or those who had nothing left to lose. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to attain freedom in Him, when we are dead to everything else.