Hunger Games vs. Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Hunger Games It may come as a surprise that a novel taught in a tenth grade english class is strikingly similar to a currently popular book of the teenage population. A common theme relates William Golding's classic novel, The Lord of the Flies, and the very popular teen heart-throb, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The unifying motif is the underlying savagery and desperation to live that stands out within each person when survival mode is activated. Peeta, the love interest in The Hunger Games, and Ralph, the leader in The Lord of the Flies, both strive to remain sane and logical despite their chaotic surroundings. The alliance made during the Games as well as the nightly pig activities show how the nagging desire to kill can soon become an amusing game. Cato and Jack, the two more savage characters in each story, learn to embrace their primitive instincts and accept their imminent success or failure. Peeta and Ralph act as complementing characters of the two books that represent the logical, logos part of the brain. Peeta is eager to stay pure as he enters the world of his impending death by telling Katniss, "I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not." Peeta's true fear is not of death, but of becoming something that is only a part of a game. He knows that he risks the prominent symptoms of trying to survive and hopes that maybe order can be restored. Ralph tries to gain order by using a conch shell during meetings between the boys on the island. The conch represents power and organization that is held for a short period of time before the boys loose complete control of everything they have ever had by being under the rule of a new leader, Jack. Jack and Cato are two boys who have accepted the fact that if they do not take control of the situation themselves, their lives will be at risk. They have accepted their fate and try to make the best of it, given their extreme