The document provides a critical analysis of the bestselling book and film The Hunger Games. It summarizes key aspects of the story related to food and hunger across several chapters. Food is portrayed as a tool of political control, with the elite Capitol controlling access to food to oppress the districts. Struggles with hunger and food scarcity drive much of the plot and characters' motivations. Inequality in access to food is used to represent the power dynamics between the affluent Capitol and impoverished districts.

1. The Hunger Games:
A critical analysis of a bestseller
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL
PhD Research Fellow
in Food Governance
Module “Global Food Policy and Developement”
Master in Food, Law and Finance 2017-18
International University College, Turin, Italy

2. 1.- Simmon, A.M. (2012). Class on fire. Using the hunger games trilogy
to encourage social action. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
56(1): 22-34.
2.- The Hunger Games: Book 1 can be accessed here:
https://www.readanybook.com/online/565428#357177
http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/suzanna-kollinz-acliq-oyunlari-1-
hisse-eng.pdf
3.- The full movie can be accessed here:
https://solarmovie.sc/movie/the-hunger-games-4105/487683-
8/watching.html
4.- Accion contra el Hambre (2014). Guia Didactica de Los Juegos del
Hambre. Derechos Humanos, hambre y soberanía alimentaria. In
Spanish.
https://fr.scribd.com/doc/190954019/Guia-Didactica-Los-Juegos-Del-
Hambre
Web Materials: book + film + academic paper +
Teaching Guidelins

3. Food is agency, power and politics
•Political device
•Social trigger
•Society organiser
•Life determinant

4. CHAPTER 1
•Life in District 12 pivots around getting food or
starving to death
•Elite members get access to better and more food
•Food as weapon of control /a prize to reward
•Food rations - “Starving” appears 3 times
•Nature provides food, but this Nature is enclosed
(fences and prohibitions restrict access to food)
•Katniss was hungry many times and her mood is
cold, distant & unhappy

5. CHAPTER 2
•Poverty is portrayed as hungry situations: hunger, the
worst face of destitution and powerless
•Katniss was desperate to get access to food (pp 33-35
detailed description of hunger plight, feelings and food-
related difficulties)
•Hunger-related deaths are hidden by Authorities
because they may fuel anger and social unrest
•Hunger-Food has agency (power to mobilise)

6. CHAPTER 3
•Katniss´ only goal in life was to provide food for her
family (pp. 51)
•GMOs as weapons (modified bids as spies, then
dogs)
•The different meals organise the narrative thread
and rhythm (detailed descriptions, repeated
sequences)
•Symbolic differentiation in type of meals and food
between the ruling Elite in the Capitol and the
subjugated districts working for them

7. CHAPTER 4
•Hunting-gathering to satisfy survival
needs, the rest for trade.
•Katniss is a wild edible plant
•Katniss always refers to food, food
collection, hunting. Half of her
memories are about food
•In the Capitol, the elite never misses
a meal (pp. 72).

8. CHAPTER 16
•Having food or not is a key driver of the
Game. Katniss & Peeta pretend to be in love
to get more food
•Destroying food as a weapon
•Food searching/eating is vital to survive
•Dichotomy and power inequalities are
represented as plenty of food in the Capitol
VS hunger in subjugated districts

9. FINAL REMMARKS
• One quarter of this bestseller is about FOOD!!!
• Narrative thread articulated around food, meals & hunger
• They do whatever is necessary to get food in the Games
• No hunger equals freedom (Amartya Sen)
• Hunger in districts is triggered by Capitol to control them
• Katniss´entire life was about food search
• She won because she knew how to find food in forest