What Writers Can Learn from Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games

I just finished book one in The Hunger Games trilogy, and needless to say, I can’t wait to get my hands on Catching Fire! Yes, I know my timing is a little late, since the books have been out for a while, and fans are already awaiting the arrival of the film on DVD. But I wouldn’t allow myself to read it until I finished the semester. Actually, I hid my copy of the book in my sock drawer so I wouldn’t start reading it and get distracted from my schoolwork!

Once I finally got around to reading it, I couldn’t help noticing some of the techniques that author Suzanne Collins uses to make this story great. Here are just a few.

The Writing

Don’t expect to read The Hunger Games if you’re looking for frilly, Tolkien-esque prose. In fact, the vast amount of sentence fragments is enough to make any grammarian feel trapped in the arena. (Is that a dismembered sentence lying near the stream, or is the Tracker Jacker venom making me hallucinate?)

Grammar aside, Collins’s habit of using short, tense sentences—or lack thereof—fits Katniss’s circumstances and personality well. It’s a utilitarian, survival mode style of writing. And it works.

The prose is also what one of my English professors calls “epigrammatic.” This means that, every so often, Collins/Katniss provides us with a short statement that is witty or beautiful, or that eloquently sums up the situation. Example: “I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.” Nice, eh? What makes these epigrams fantastic is that not only do they provide fans with material for memes, they make the overall writing style richer, wiser, and more enjoyable.

The Characters

I have to admit, the sheer vitality of Collins’s characters was probably my favorite part of the book. As I read, I grew so empathetic to Katniss that I felt as if I became her. If someone had asked me my name while I was in the middle of reading The Hunger Games, I would have looked up from my book and promptly responded, “Katniss Everdeen.” Now that’s great character development.

Not only does Collins carefully develop her main character, she draws attention to her minor characters as well. Each one is memorable, from Haymitch to Rue to Caesar Flickerman to the redhaired Avox girl. Collins hints at the elaborate backstories of many minor characters, even if she doesn’t reveal the details.

She also adds realism to her characters by giving them internal contradictions. Katniss hunts, skins, and guts her own animals, but she is squeamish when it comes to human injuries. Peeta is inherently gentle, but he also has a fierce side. Cinna may be a madman, but he is also kind and cunning. Collins invites her readers to wonder at these ironies, to marvel at the many-faceted jewel that is the human personality.

The Critique

Collins’s reasoning behind writing the trilogy is fairly well known, so I won’t go into the details here. However, I just have to say that I was intrigued when I heard about it, because so many noteworthy American and British writers I studied in class this semester used the same style: social critique.

More specifically, she uses the technique of subversion, meaning she takes the very thing she’s speaking against and twists it. In The Hunger Games, she does this by writing about violent entertainment from the perspective of someone forced to appear in a reality TV show. Through Katniss’s eyes, she shows the deception that goes on backstage, as well as the human element behind all the blood and gore.

Again, most of the writers we consider great do the same things, but in our contemporary world where authors can hide behind the safe labels of genre fiction, this is often not the case. Modern readers can separate fiction from nonfiction, because our fiction doesn’t contain enough truth. It’s too comfortable. It doesn’t challenge our society’s existing mindset. The Hunger Games does, and that’s part of what makes it a great book.

Anyway, that’s my Hunger Games experience. What did you think of The Hunger Games? Suzanne Collins? Writing in general? Feel free to drop me a comment—I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, my friends, and may the odds be ever in your favor!