The Hunger Games: Battling Through the Cultural Lies

As the participants of The Hunger Games battle for their lives, we too find ourselves in a war for our culture.  The weapons of our warfare aren’t bows, arrows, knives, or spears, “but [our weapons] have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).  Our young people who read the trilogy and await the big movie opening today are deeply involved in the battle of ideas and beliefs.  So, to help them (and even us adults), let’s consider just a few of the cultural lies that are launched at us throughout this novel-based film.

Cultural Lie #1: The Supremacy of Feminism.  Katniss Everdeen is the heroine of the story.  She is strong, determined, courageous, and sacrificial.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with a girl having these character qualities.  Yet Katniss is also extremely feministic in her attitudes and mindset, as well as deeply hardened emotionally.  This is the feminist ideal.  Modern feminism idolizes strengh, power, independence, intelligence, and success in women (not to mention the distrust of authority and bitterness against men)–all embodied by Katniss.  And, most of the girls that are portrayed as somewhat “feminine” in the story are too soft, weak, or ditzy.

Cultural Lie #2: The Feminization of Men.  The male hero in the book is Peeta Mellark.  Of course, he is greatly overshadowed by Katniss (see point #1).  Even though Peeta is physically strong, he’s also soft, sensitive, and lacks true skills or even intelligence.  This is the typical role reversal that is encouraged in American culture.  Peeta is “carried” most of the game by the gifted and courageous Katniss.  He wouldn’t be alive without her!  And finally, he longs to pursue Katniss as a girlfriend, but lacks the courage.  He is the embodiment of the feminized male.

Cultural Lie #3: The Superiority of Children over Adults.  Continuing a trend that we have seen in TV and movies for most of my lifetime, the children of The Hunger Games are far superior to adults.  This may be seen as acceptable story telling, since the intended audience is adolescents.  But this lack of adults with any real character is yet another piece of cultural propaganda.  Kids always win.  The adult establishment is always corrupt.  This is the formula of The Hunger Games.  We meet the much overdone alcoholic male.  There is also the requisite gay (or at least gay-acting) man.  And loads of controlling adults.  Granted, there are plenty of bad kids in the story too–but they were clearly made that way by adults.

Cultural Lie #4: The Purity of Teenage Romance.  What’s a story without a good romance?  Even in a nearly hopeless battle for your life, there’s time to fall in love!  But what is quickly forgotten is that these are just teenagers–Katniss is only 16 years old.  Yes, I know that’s the mandated age for teenage romance to begin–or at least it was when I was a teen.  But that’s the problem, in my humble opinion.  Our cultural lie is that teenagers should be falling deeply in love and maintaining emotional relationship–even as middle schoolers.  And, in The Hunger Games, we even have an adolescent love triangle to boot!  Teenagers already believe that they are fully equipped to date and invest themselves into physical and emotional relationships.  This story just continues the cultural lie of the innocent purity of teenage romance.

Cultural Lie #5: A World without God.  Finally, what is most striking when you read The Hunger Games is the total lack of reference to God.  There’s not even some sort of “higher power!”  Collins has created a world that is totally naturalistic, making the story even more hopeless and meaningless.  The only entity with godlike power is the Capitol.  It acts in total control of the people.  During the games itself, it is the Capitol that swoops in and helicopters the dead children away like a mystical hand from heaven.  Now Collins may be trying to communicate the horrors of making the State a god with total sovereign power.  Yet there are many who will watch this movie and continue to believe the cultural lie that God really doesn’t exist.  In other words, the Panem of the future is really no different than the world of today.  And we already have too many of our young people living their lives without reference to God.  How sad it is to see stories that only confirm this sort of life–even if it is portrayed as pure misery!

These cultural lies are nothing new.  Sometimes it’s easy to overlook them.  Other times they get just plain annoying.  But ALL the time they are strong mind-altering weapons used against our young people.  While many of our teens will enjoy the action and drama of The Hunger Games, use it as an opportunity to battle for a Christian worldview!