The Hunger Games- Part Two “The Games”

Chapters Fourteen through to Nineteen

Katniss has found Rue, the 12 year female tribute from District eleven, in the trees and Rue points out a tracker jacker nest. The Career tributes are below waiting for Katniss to come down. She realizes that she can cut the branch so the nest lands within the group of tributes. When she first attempts to cut the branch free it is too awkward a position so she waits for morning. Before she is reading to crawl back into her sleeping bag she notices a small silver pouch, Haymitch has sent her a gift! He sends her cream that instantly cures her burns. In the morning Katniss finishes off with the nest but gets stung three times. The tracker jackers manage to kill two of the Career tributes and Katniss is able to recover bow and arrows from one of the dead bodies. She then passes out from the effects of the tracker jacker venom.

Katniss awakes after a sleep packed with nightmares. She treats her wounds and cleans herself up in the pond. This is when she hears Rue in the trees. She offers Rue some food and the make an alliance. The two fill each other on what they know about other tributes. Rue has a lot of information about the pack of Career tributes. She knows where their base camp is and knows that Peeta is no longer with them. Together they devise a plan to destroy the all the food and supplies the Careers have. Katniss is happy she has teamed up with Rue but she can’t help thinking about how they both can’t survive.

The plan to blow up the Careers supplies and food works and Cato is furious. Katniss waits for the area to be clear of tributes and she sets off to find Rue. Rue isn’t where she is supposed to be and Katniss begins to panic until she hears Rue’s signal sound. She runs after the sound and finds Rue caught up in a net. Katniss is too late because a spear is sent into her body. Out of reflex Katniss sends and arrow into the male tribute from District one. Katniss stays with Rue and comforts her until she is gone. Once she is Katniss buries her body in flowers. She prepares for bed and realizes that boy from District one was her first kill.


END OF CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Throughout these chapters slight hint of action and adventure continues but, couldn’t some things count as cyberpunk?

Cyber punk usually includes near future dystopian novels. We have already determined The Hunger Games is futuristic, and the type of government present in the novel makes it dystopian. Cyberpunk themes include advances in technology and artificial intelligence. In chapter fourteen there are examples of advances in technology. They include; the lab created animals that Katniss finds- the tracker jackers, “magical” medicine and the arena itself. The tracker jackers are a kind of wasp that was spawned in a lab. Their stings cause a lump the size of a plum on contact and the venom of their stings has a very unpleasant effect on people. The second example of advances in technology is the medicine that Katniss has sent to her from Haymitch after she is stung by the tracker jackers. This medicated cream was capable of healing the tracker jacker stings instantly on contact. Now really, what do we have these days that will INSTANTLY cure a sting that has unearthly effects?

In Chapter sixteen action elements are reinforced when Katniss and Rue devise their plan to destroy the Careers stash of food and supply at their base camp. Rue was in charge of making distractions while Katniss had the honours of annihilating their pyramid of food and supplies. The novel got even more intense when Katniss witnessed Rue’s death and immediately shot the killer with her bow and arrow.

By the end of chapter eighteen proof of the dystopian government has been presented. There are six tributes left and Ceasar Flickerman announces a rule change to the games. Two tributes from the same district can with the games this year.