International Journal of

Public Theology 13 (2019) 119–139

brill.com/ijpt

Resisting the Empire in Young Adult Fiction:

Lessons from Hunger Games

Darren Cronshaw
Head of Research and Missional Leadership, Australian College of Ministries
(Sydney College of Divinity), Australia
dcronshaw@acom.edu.au

Abstract

Hunger Games are young adult fiction and movie franchises, which address issues of
Empire, border control, politics of fear, human rights, gender, ethnicity, refugees and
global inequity. The narrative of Hunger Games echoes the dilemmas of balancing
personal sovereignty and self-fulfillment with the struggle that goes on for advocacy
for social and political change. They make heroes of protagonists who rebel against
the status quo and make a stand for justice in oppressive social-political contexts. The
basic plot is ancient, but it is striking a chord with a generation of westerners who are
disaffected with current societal and political trends. This article is a literary analysis
of Hunger Games, analyzing its treatment of public theology, sovereignty and justice
issues, especially for younger adults. It affirms the appeal of the books for resisting op-
pression, but questions unchallenged assumptions about ethnicity, gender, retributive
violence and personal authenticity.

Keywords

dystopian literature – literature and theology – sovereignty – Empire – retributive

violence – authenticity

1 Dystopian Arena for Rebellion

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic 2008, made into a movie
in 2012), and sequels Catching Fire (2009 book; 2013 movie) and Mockingjay
(2010 book; two-part movie 2014 and 2015) depict an unjust world where the

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120 Cronshaw

shining Capitol keeps everyone in their twelve districts. It is a post-apocalyptic

world in what was North America but is now ravaged by war and environmen-
tal devastation: ‘The disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroach-
ing seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little
sustenance remained.’1 The country is called Panem, literally ‘bread’ in Latin;
it is an ironic name given that most people in the districts struggle for survival
in medieval slum-like conditions of poverty working under dictatorial control
and for the benefit of the Capitol and their luxurious living. It is a political re-
gime begging for revolutionary rebellion.
The need for resistance is clearer when we see the nature of the annual
‘hunger games’ that is the basis of the plot. It is a grotesque imperial system
whereby the Capitol organizes the ‘reaping’ to select a young male and female
‘tribute’ from each district who are then put together to fight to the death.
Children from poor families may put their name in the ballot extra times for
extra food supplies to survive. The stratification and inequality of Panem’s so-
ciety is stark—both politically and economically. It is reminiscent of global
injustices of poverty and child soldiers enlisted to fight the wars of others.
The reaping is punishment for a previous rebellion; it is a tool of control and
so-called ‘entertainment’ in the ultimate reality television show (drawing on
Lord of the Flies and Theseus and the Minotaur analogies, and reminiscent of
Spartacus and Survivor).2 But sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen subverts the
system. Katniss’ younger sister, Primrose, is selected to fight, and Katniss vol-
unteers in her place. With twenty-three other unlucky recruits, she is taken to
the opulent and colourful Capitol—the centre of excess and greed, vanity and
frivolity—and given beauty treatments and weapons training for the nation-
ally televised Hunger Games. It is a sad mirror of our world and its inequity,
the offer of escape through mindless entertainment and the allure of instant
celebrity status and riches. Reality television offers an adventure away from
home, with a million-dollar reward or other enticements to the ‘survivor’.
Katniss’ journey, however, is one of the classic quest narrative; it is reminiscent
of Joseph Campbell’s description of the hero who faces trials, overcomes evil
and with the help of friends achieves their goal.3
The stories of Hunger Games are not humorous or assured of a neat happy
ending, and are full of violence and ethical dilemmas, and yet—or perhaps

1  Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (London: Scholastic, 2008), p. 21.

2  Suzanne Collins, ‘A Conversation: Questions & Answers’, <https://www.scholastic.com/
thehungergames/media/suzanne_collins_q_and_a.pdf>, [accessed 13 July 2018].
3  Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York: Pantheon, 1949); Ann GL
Duncan and Andy Lanford, The Gospel According to ‘The Hunger Games’ Trilogy (Ann Duncan,
Amazon Digital, 2012).

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Resisting the Empire in Young Adult Fiction 121

partly because of this—young adult readers love them. They display a kind of
‘transformative utopianism’ that points to a desire for political, social and eco-
logical change for a better world, even if such change is fraught with difficulty
and dilemmas.4 The stories show youth navigating their transition to maturity
and adulthood, necessarily leaving their parents and accepting responsibil-
ity for shaping the world in positive directions. The narrative and themes of
Hunger Games, and their popularity with young adult readers, call for a careful
reading and analysis from the perspective of public theology; in other words,
in what ways can theological reflection inform the public, global and justice
issues raised by the books?
This article is thus an exercise in public theology that analyses Hunger
Games and its dystopian treatment of sovereignty and justice issues. It discuss-
es to what extent it might inspire advocacy for transformation in oppressive
contexts, and yet how it reinforces unhelpful stereotypes of ethnicity, gender
and retributive violence. It reflects on Charles Taylor’s nuanced study of the
modern view of self-fulfilment and the culture of personal authenticity, and
how these themes are reflected in the struggle of the protagonists.5 The article
also considers Hunger Games and Panem’s socio-political context alongside
biblical motifs of the Exodus from Egypt’s enslavement of the Hebrews and
Gospel narratives depicting the Roman Empire-dominated context of Jesus’
time.
The Hunger Games becomes an arena for political rebellion; but in it and
the larger narrative I offer a public theology’s query about whether the narra-
tive points far enough, particularly in terms of attitudes to Empire, ethnicity,
gender and violence, and what is communicated about authenticity.

2 Contentment and Dissatisfaction with the Empire

There is a colourful collection of characters around Katniss with different pos-

tures to Empire. Classic villain, President Snow, manipulates the country to en-
sure people in the Capitol get richer and those on the margins are controlled.
Snow is scheming and power-hungry, and falls into the classic pragmatic politi-
cian’s mistake to think that the ends justify the means.

4  Claire Bradford and Kerry Mallan, New World Orders in Contemporary Children’s Literature
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 29; Julie Clawson, The Hunger Games and the
Gospel: Bread, Circuses and the Kingdom of God (Englewood: Patheos, 2012), kindle 143.
5  Charles Taylor, The Ethics of Authenticity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991).

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Victors of previous Hunger Games become rich and instant celebrities, co-
opted by the Capitol for propaganda. They are provided everything to make
them content and compliant. Some victors welcome this. Others are driven to
resentment-driven mental breakdown. Haymitch, the only previous District 12
Victor, is in the latter category. Usually drunk, bad-mannered and grumpy, he
becomes Katniss’ mentor and supports her at critical times. He sees Katniss’
potential and grooms her for the catalytic role in the rebellion.
Effie Trinkett, chaperone of District 12 tributes, is ignorant about politics,
poverty and the growing rebellion. She views the outlying districts as ‘barbar-
ic’; her view is ironic, once again, given that she is part of the system recruit-
ing children for blood sport. Effie epitomizes the fashion and career-driven
western individual with their eyes closed to political realities. By comparison
Katniss is an emancipated young woman who does anything the boys can do,
and better, including initiate violence; the main female character in Katniss’
entourage is stereotypically naïve and politically disengaged. Yet even Effie
finds herself on the side of the rebels.
Another of Katniss’ ‘handlers’ is her Capitol-appointed stylist Cinna, who
presents her as a courageous figure with burning clothes, nicknamed ‘the girl
on fire’. The Capitol see Cinna’s art as a dangerous medium, and so he is ‘disap-
peared’. But he helped her become the hero of the rebellion and the feminist
poster girl for the book’s readers. It is not just people on the margins who be-
come engaged in rebellion, but a select group of important activists who sub-
versively rebel as a fifth column within the Capitol’s hierarchy.
It is unclear what vision of alternative society these characters have. The
books do not conclude with much clearer vision either, and perhaps end with
more honesty about the ambiguity of how to replace an unjust system with
something better.
Part of the challenge of public theology is to ask of what public use is the-
ology? In other words, what resources does theology bring to public issues,
specifically the justice and sovereignty themes as raised in Hunger Games
that reflect challenges in our society? In what ways can theology be liberat-
ing for our response to empire, ethnic discrimination, gender stereotypes and
misplaced violence? How can a developed political theology inform how we
conceive of how our social and political life is best arranged? We cannot be
satisfied with a hope of personal authenticity without also developing alterna-
tive approaches for our political systems and public realm. This is arguably
part of the weakness of where Hunger Games develops. It is also part of the
weakness of theology that does not move beyond, at its most limited, concerns
with individual salvation.

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Resisting the Empire in Young Adult Fiction 123

Katniss’ vision is fuelled by a world where individual people are free to claim
their own sovereignty, exemplified in her sister Prim working as a medic and
wanting to become a doctor, an ambition previously impossible to imagine.
In that she finds hope: ‘Something small and quiet, like a match being struck,
lights up the gloom inside me. This is the sort of future a rebellion could bring.’6
Her passion for her sister’s personal sovereignty, expressed in the iconic elite
vocational ambition of being a doctor, is what finally catalyses Katniss’ resolve
to oppose the empire’s sovereignty. Whatever the motivation, she struggles
against the Capitol and ends the Hunger Games, but at great personal cost
with a cruel twist.
It is impossible to generalize about the conscience of youth today. Some
millennials are apathetic about the problems of the world or at least comfort-
able with their own place in life, while others have a sense the world is not
as it should be and long for a new world order. Or, at least, many suspect we
should work for change, given that some people struggle for sufficient daily
bread, while others gorge themselves on abundance. Capitol citizens can drink
a liquid that makes them throw up before eating more, reminiscent of Roman
overindulgence. The poorer 99% of the world do not just exist to enrich the
1%, which is why Katniss and her compatriots resist the imperial designs of the
Capitol, and why today youth have their imaginations captured by social jus-
tice, environmental and Occupy movements. The aspiration behind wanting
to believe in something righteous, and to act for a better world, explains part
of the appeal of Hunger Games as dystopian literature. The popularity of the
trilogy at least suggests that its young adult readers want to engage with these
political themes, even if in the safe confines of fiction.7
I will return again to Hunger Games’ treatment of Empire below, but first
want to explore to what extent the narrative confronts (or not) conventions of
ethnicity, gender and violence. How do Katniss and her collaborators go so far
(in terms of political resistance), but not far enough (in challenging dominat-
ing assumptions about ethnicity, gender and violence)?

6  Collins, Mockingjay, p. 176; discussed in Karl Hand, ‘Come Now, Let us Treason Together:
Conversion and Revolutionary Consciousness in Luke 22:35–38 and The Hunger Games
Trilogy’, Literature and Theology: An International Journal of Religion, Theory and Culture 29:3
(September 2015), 348–365.
7  Melissa Ames, ‘“Apolitical” Adolescents: Analyzing the Popularity and Educational Potential
of Dystopian Literature Post-9/11’, The High School Journal, 97:1 (Fall 2013), 3, 7, 10–12; Amber
M Simmons, ‘Class on Fire: Using the Hunger Games Trilogy to Encourage Social Action’,
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56:1 (September 2012), 22–34.

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3 Unveiling Colour Blindness

Rue is the youngest tribute, a dark-skinned girl, intentionally portrayed in the

movie as African-American. In District 11, Rue and her family had to work from
sunrise to sunset in the orchards—reminiscent of African-American slaves.
This softly-spoken and innocent-looking black girl, often overlooked or in-
visible to other characters, becomes one of a succession of people who self-
sacrificially protect Katniss. Katniss’ salute to Rue and the subaltern voice of
Rue’s four-note melodious whistle are adopted by Rue’s home District 11 as
signs of rebellion.
To whatever extent the books are about rebellion, however, here they re-
flect rather than challenge colonial and racist ideologies. There is minimal
recognition that ethnicity is a significant marker or point of discrimination
within Panem. It is the dark-skinned girl Rue who sacrifices herself for Katniss.
Moreover, she comes from an oppressed District who are catalytic in the re-
bellion, but serve in the background behind white rebellion leaders. This
scenario is reminiscent of African-American soldiers—from the Civil War to
Vietnam—making their fighting contribution alongside others, but not highly
visible or recognized; it is similarly the case for Aboriginal Australian soldiers.8
Rue is identified as black in the book, and is clearly ethnically African-
American in the movie. It thus partly overcomes the ‘white default’. Yet there
was outcry on social media from ‘offended’ viewers that Rue and Thresh, as
tributes from District 11, were cast as black.9 This outcry unmasks the expec-
tation that heroes are mono-ethnic, mono-chrome and ‘like us’ rather than
‘other’. It is indeed the coloured child who is allowed to die and not be part of
the future.10
There has been limited discussion of Katniss’ ethnicity, perhaps because it is
ambiguous albeit clearly not Anglo-Saxon. Reviewers claim her self-sufficiency,
boldness, loyalty to kin and skill as an archer suggests deep Appalachian cul-
tural roots. Her odyssey is set against a background of Appalachian woods and

8  Robert D Edgerton, Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers In America’s Wars (Boulder:

Westview 2002).
9  Anna Holmes, ‘White Until Proven Black: Imagining Race in Hunger Games,’ The New
Yorker (30 March, 2012), <http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/white-until
-proven-black-imagining-race-in-hunger-games>, [accessed 13 July 2018].
10  Riley McGuire, ‘Queer Children, Queer Futures: Navigating “lifedeath” in “The Hunger
Games’”, Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 48:2 (June 2015), 63–76, 70–71.

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Resisting the Empire in Young Adult Fiction 125

mountain life.11 These images are arguably stereotypical and exploited.12 They
also offer opportunity to conscientize readers to the presence of ethnicity as
against the all too common whitewashing of popular culture.13
Most characters are ambiguous in terms of ethnic background. But when
it comes to black people, Collins’ portrayal implies most suffer from socio-
economic injustice, but with no awareness or conscientization that this needs
addressing. Charles Taylor explains that equal recognition is considered es-
sential in the contemporary ‘culture of authenticity’. A democratic society
appropriately should recognize the equal place of all people, whatever their
cultural or ethnic background: ‘Not only contemporary feminism but also race
relations and discussions of multiculturalism are undergirded by the premises
that denied recognition can be a form of oppression.’14 Neither the Capitol, nor
the rebels, recognize the ethnic-based class differences evident when beautiful
blond people are (mostly) rich and black people are (mostly) poor. A dystopian
plot can only deal with so many issues of global crisis proportion, yet readers
and viewers can evidently import their own discriminatory biases concerning
ethnicity, and also gender.

4 Feminist Poster Girl or Retreat to Stereotypes?

Katniss’ main collaborators are a pair of boys with whom she forms a love tri-
angle. Katniss is the lead heroine who wields her weapons and exercises lead-
ership. In another sense, the boys’ relationships to Katniss, and her reliance on
them and the reliance of the plot on romantic themes, drives the book back
into gender stereotypes.
Gale Hawthorne is Katniss’ childhood buddy and fellow poacher. Gale is
driven with a passion for justice, but also jealousy for Katniss. He occasionally
suggests they should leave their responsibilities behind and escape into the
abandoned forest ‘borderlands’. Nature outside the fence presents a picture of

11  Lana A Whited, ‘The Hunger Games, Film, Directed by Gary Ross’ (review), Journal of
Appalachian Studies 18:1/2 (Spring/Fall 2012), 326–331.
12  Tina L Hanlon, ‘Coal Dust and Ballads: Appalachia and District 12’, in Mary F Pharr and
Leisa A Clark, eds, Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne
Collins Trilogy (Jefferson: Shutterstock, 2012), pp. 59–68.
13  Rebecca J Kinney, ‘“But I don’t see race”: Teaching Popular Culture and Racial Formation’,
Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 24:1–2 (Spring 2013/
Summer 2013 & Fall 2013/Winter 2014), 40–55.
14  Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity, p. 50.

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peace and freedom, and escape from the struggle. They choose instead to ‘take
a stand’ for freedom.15
Katniss’ other collaborator is Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son chosen as male
tribute from District 12. Peeta confesses his long-held love and admiration for
Katniss, and later proposes and announces her pregnancy, on national tele-
vision. The announcements are publicity stunts, but his love for Katniss is
sincere. As Katniss reciprocates and kisses him we, and they, are unsure how
much the kissing is for ‘selfie’ shots for show. Katniss had volunteered and was
prepared to die for her sister, but Peeta was also Christlike in being willing to
die for Katniss. He takes a wound meant for someone else, then buries himself
in the ground and rises, resurrected, three days later.16 Together they refuse to
accept the Capitol’s sovereignty, preferring to die than having to kill the other.
They thus assert personal sovereignty, resonating with anarchist philosophy
and the libertarianism of Robert Nozick.17
Just as Katniss learns she is expected to have a stylist to prepare her ap-
pearance as much as a mentor to train her to fight, she also presents a stylized
relationship to the audience.18 Katniss’ relationship with Peta is developed for
instrumental purposes, to get the sympathy of the watching crowds; but they
refused to let the powers dominate their behaviour. Moreover, her stylist Cinna
is more than he first appears and adds more to Katniss’ image than the Capitol
wanted. He transforms Katniss’s image from bride to Mockingjay, from a para-
digm of femininity to a symbol of revolution—even the exemplar and leader
of the revolution.19
Throughout the books Katniss oscillates with indecision over which boy
she really wants, or needs. But, in the romance sub-plot, the books do not de-
construct dysfunctional gendered relationships and worldly priorities. It is a
clichéd narrative pitting the clean-cut-boy against the dark brooding rebel
trope. In that cliché one gets the girl short term, the other long term. One gets
the marriage, the other the hot sexual arousal. It is a dehumanizing romantic

15  Collins, Hunger Games, p. 10.

16  Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (London: Scholastic, 2009), p. 305;
Amy Simpson, ‘Jesus in “The Hunger Games”,’ Christianity Today, Reviews (March 22, 2012),
<https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/hungergamesa.html>, [ac-
cessed 13 May 2019].
17  Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York: Basic, 2013).
18  James Keller, ‘Meta-Cinema and Meta-Marketing: Gary Ross’s “The Hunger Games”, an
Allegory of its own making’, Studies in Popular Culture 35:2 (Spring 2013), 24–28.
19  Jordan Kraemer and Shira L Lander, ‘Gender and Apocalypticism in Suzanne Collins’s
The Hunger Games Trilogy’, in Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Nathaniel Des Rosiers, Shira L
Lander, Jacqueline Pastis, Daniel Ullucci, eds, A Most Reliable Witness (Providence, RI:
Brown Judaic Studies, 2015), pp. 165–174, 169.

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cliché which corresponds to the madonna/whore dichotomy. From a positive

perspective, her reliance on her (boy-)friends, and other collaborators, reflects
a communal effort. The struggle is not merely one of personal sovereignty. Yet
she stands largely alone as a female heroine, apart from the smaller Rue and
the spineless Effie, in the company of mostly male strong characters who she
relies on.
Moreover, Katniss is a heroine who displays traditionally feminine
qualities—beauty and vulnerability; yet she also blurs the gender binaries by
demonstrating traditionally masculine athleticism, self-sufficiency and pro-
clivity to violence. She displays heteronormativity and is admired deeply by
at least two men. Katniss sidesteps gender stereotypes in providing for her
family.20 She does not want to have children and remains virginal throughout;
that state of being is in keeping with her role as sacrificial maiden. In the epi-
logue, after the war is resolved, readers see her married, with a boy and a girl
child. Hunger Games and Katniss as protagonist may be critical of the Capitol
Empire, yet accept implicit hierarchies of ethnicity, gender and sexuality.

5 Violent Overthrow

For Katniss there is also ambiguity in the political and military battle. Her own
choice puts her in the violent arena in place of her sister. She struggles with
choices of engaging in rebellion, especially as figurehead. Katniss transitions
from being co-opted for the Capitol’s propaganda to being co-opted by the re-
bellion. She resents the violence the Capitol forced on her, but is also uncertain
about the violent rebels. Retributive violence is the Capitol’s norm and, in op-
position, there is no suggestion from rebel leaders of non-violent resistance.
Katniss was a celebrity as Tribute in the Hunger Games, but is also co-opted
for propaganda purposes by the rebels as the ‘Mockingjay’ symbol of rebellion.
The Capitol has evolved into a façade of comfort, security and prosperity, but
at the expense of the poorer districts. It is awfully unjust, but the rebels are not
morally much superior. The revolutionary structures of the rebels are prone to
replicate what they rebelled against but with a different set of people toping
the hierarchy. Katniss’ choices become an ethical quagmire. This ambiguous
call for change also resonates for young adult readers who question the status
quo but wonder what it can be replaced with, and how.
The narrative of oppressed becoming oppressors reflects violent revolutions
through history. It is reminiscent of the Exodus narrative. The Israelites are told

20  McGuire, ‘Queer Children’, 70.

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to remember they were slaves and so be compassionate towards others on the

margins (Exod. 22:21–23). Yet, having been liberated from the Empire, they cre-
ate a new society in the ‘promised land of milk and honey’, but entered on the
basis of a violent conquest (at least according to the Hebrew Bible’s metanar-
rative). Post-colonial critique of the violence of the Exodus narrative is that it
is not ideal practice but cautionary tale. Michael Walzer analyses how this in-
version of roles and other aspects of the exodus theme appears in revolution-
ary politics throughout history. The conquest narrative was drawn on by South
Africa Boers and also Puritans in their wars against North American Indians.
It is an ongoing inspiration for the radicalism of right-wing Zionism and its
messianic politics. The Canaanites were not of moral concern to the people of
Israel, and were to be driven out (Deut. 20:17–18).21 By extension, if an ethnic
group feels their destiny under God demands it, they disregard the rights of
indigenous people.
The Australian theologian Normal Habel and indigenous Rainbow Spirit el-
ders critique the celebration of Joshua leading Israel to conquer the land with a
scorched land policy repeated in British colonial methodology. Habel suggests
the story of Abraham reflects a better way (Gen. 12, 14, 21, 23). Abraham prac-
tises peaceful coexistence and mutual sharing and a politics of solidarity with
neighbours. The Exodus narrative is a paradigm that colonialism reflected and
sometimes drew upon for justification; Abraham’s approach as a peacemaker
rather than greedy invader is an alternative.22
In biblical studies that shapes ethics, in political theory that guides interna-
tional relations, and in popular literature that shapes the imagination, we need
a rediscovery of non-violent approaches to transformation. Younger genera-
tions are increasingly desensitized to violence; they are not usually helped in
this regard by popular literature and movies.23 Unfortunately, Hunger Games
offers no alternative other than violent overthrow of violent oppressors.
Karl Hand suggests that imperial occupation demands transformation to
a revolutionary consciousness—whether that be Katniss picking up her bow,
or Jesus’ disciples buying daggers.24 Hand discusses the ‘reversal of method’

21  Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1985), pp. 7, 141–43.
22  Norman Habel, ‘Appendix 2: Abraham and the Land: Comments on the Land as Host
Country’, in The Rainbow-Spirit-Elders, Rainbow Spirit Theology: Towards an Australian
Aboriginal Theology (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2007), pp. 82–85; Darren Cronshaw, ‘Reading
Rainbow Spirit Theology: Learning from an Australian Aboriginal Theology’, Mission
Studies 32:3 (November 2015), 418–441.
23  AL Downey, ‘The Transformative Power of Drama: Bringing Literature and Social Justice
to Life’, English Journal 95 (1), 33–38.
24  Hand, ‘Come Now’, 348–365.

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pericope of Lk. 22:35–38, where Jesus says, despite being told otherwise previ-
ously (Lk. 10:1–12), to get a purse, travel-bag and dagger. Is this what disciple-
ship entails in a context of imperial oppression, as Hand implies? When the
disciples find two swords, Jesus’s response is either to comment on their suffi-
ciency “They are enough” or, as critical scholarship interprets, as rebuke “that’s
enough, stop this” (Lk. 22:38). Later, the disciples attempt to use the swords to
stop Jesus’ arrest, and he rebukes them (Lk. 22:51). Is there ever a context for
Jesus’ disciples to take up arms against injustice? Hand comes short of replying
in the affirmative, but is also critical of passive acceptance of the status quo
when revolutionary action is needed:

Popular and pious views of discipleship which transform Christians into

compliant, law-abiding citizens, dutiful employees, company men, or in
any way conformists to the current global economic and political system
are challenged by the way that Luke’s Jesus includes a call to revolution-
ary consciousness in his vision of discipleship.25

Hand concludes that both Luke and Hunger Games urge readers to decide for
themselves how to respond to injustice.
What is different about Luke’s Jesus, however, compared with Collins’
Katniss, is that Jesus taught and modelled a different way. The world’s com-
mon response to violence is more violence. Christian theologians have justi-
fied violence since Augustine’s just war theory through to Marxist theologians
espousing the dagger of violent revolution. Others adopted pacifism as a sec-
ond alternative and practised non-resistance. A third way is nonviolence, syn-
onymous with Jesus’ teaching.
Walter Wink discusses the basis for Christian nonviolence and questions the
‘myth of redemptive violence’.26 Popular culture from cartoons to Hollywood
movies, and foreign policy from militarism to anti-terror strategy, suggests that
violence saves. Jesus taught nonviolence as a radical new way and broke the
violence cycle by absorbing it on the cross. Many Jews, including some close
followers, wanted him to lead a violent revolution against Rome. Yet he coura-
geously modelled nonviolent, albeit subversive, alternatives. He rebuked the
disciples for suggesting calling down fire down on inhospitable Samaritans
(Lk 9:51–56). He stopped the disciple wielding a sword in a misguided attempt
to stop Jesus’ arrest (Lk. 22:51). Wink suggests that Jesus did not change the

25  Hand, ‘Come Now’, 15.

26  Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, (New York: Galilee,
1999).

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rulers but subverted the whole system of rules. He introduced the ‘kindom’ of
God where powers and people are in harmony. Nonviolence is a courageous
alternative and, as Jesus showed, it calls for societal transformation and all-
inclusive forgiveness of enemies.27
Violent response by bigger-than-life heroes and especially beautiful hero-
ines makes for exciting literature and cinematography. It is one thing to meet
violent injustice with violent overthrow, and ‘you killed mine’ with ‘I’ll kill you’.
This is the path of many violent revolutionary leaders throughout history; it
is the plot of more books and movies. Yet another alternative is suggested by
equally revolutionary but more subversive leaders who practice and model
nonviolent responses to blatant evil.
Non-violent protest is not merely idealistic rhetoric but has brought sub-
stantial social change in modern history. In the face of caste discrimination,
Gandhi led India’s untouchables and lower castes in overturning systemic
evil. In response to institutionalized discrimination, Martin Luther King Jnr
and Rosa Parks were catalytic in the American Civil Rights Movement. King
helped his people avoid becoming what they were standing against: ‘The ul-
timate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the
very thing it seeks to destroy.’28 Nelson Mandela used nonviolent resistance
against apartheid for the majority black and coloured people in South Africa.
Srdja Popovic was part of the movement of non-violent protest in Serbia that
brought Slobadan Milosevic’s downfall. Popovic admits that nonviolence does
not always work, but does suggest that it is more fruitful than violent revolu-
tion (citing a fifty-three per cent success rate compared with twenty-six per
cent).29 The default response to violence and oppression is other violence, un-
fortunately celebrated in popular culture including dystopian novels.
The truly radical message of Jesus was not ‘go buy a sword’ but to overturn
the natural tendency towards retributive violence. Jesus responded to the ac-
cepted status quo that said ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, by assert-
ing turning the other cheek. That riposte was not advice to be a doormat but to
stand up for one’s dignity in the face of oppression.30 He refused to adopt his
political ethic to the power structures of Rome or Israel. Despite the hopes of

27  Ibid., pp. 11, 42–62, 68–69, 81, 142.

28  Ibid., p. 124.
29  Srdja Popovic and with Matthew Miller, Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding,
Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow
Dictators, or Simply Change the World (New York: Random House, 2015).
30  Mt. 5:38–41; Wink, Powers that Be, pp. 98–111.

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the Jewish population and the urging of the Zealots, Jesus was radically disin-
terested in violent rebellion.31
Jesus’ world was ruled by an empire that experienced injustices parallel to
those depicted in Panem, but his response was not the solution the Israelites
were looking for in a Messiah. Panem’s populace longed for peace, and the reb-
els led them in overthrowing the Capitol and killing the bad guys (and the bad
guys among the good guys). In co-opting the violence of the oppressors, they
themselves fell victim to the same mentality that violence can fix the world.
The people of Palestine—then as now—longed for peace, but Jesus’ response
was: “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (Jn 14:27,
NASB). He opposed violence with nonviolence, and subverted an ethic of dom-
ination with sacrificial service.

6 Cautionary Tale between Empire and Anarchy

Panem looks like a very different world to ours, set as it might be in a distant
post-apocalyptic future. It does not take too much imagination, however, to
conceive how our world could suffer the military and environmental disas-
ters leading to its evolution, let alone see parallels to how our world functions.
Panem’s ancestors used up the world’s resources and destroyed the environ-
ment, leaving North America with a fraction of its population and nature
struggling to re-emerge with vitality. It has become a world where the rich are
obsessed with appearance, displaying vulgar excess and vainglorious pursuit
of beauty. Those with power use it to oppress rather than serve. Media is used
to manipulate and maintain control. Capitol riches compared to the poverty
of District 12 is starkly portrayed. The same inequity exists in western nations,
let alone when the west is compared with majority world poverty; and there
are the same reasons to distrust those who wield power and control the media.
In its dystopian genre, Hunger Games is a cautionary tale of what society
could become.32 It is also a self-directed satire, however as Hand suggests, that

31  Mark Manolopoulos suggests Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (Mt 12:12–13) shows Jesus as
a violent revolutionary, mandating revolutionary violence as a last resort. See his ‘The
Dirty Hands and Pure Hearts of Revolutionary Leaders: Love and Hate in Jesus and Che
Guevara’, Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Volume 13 (2015), 89–103. That ac-
tion of civil disturbance, though, was directed against a religious system that was taking
economic advantage of worshippers and discriminating against Gentiles. Jesus never ad-
vocated or modelled violence against the empire, nor against individuals.
32  George A Dunn and Nicholas Michaud, ‘Introduction: Let the Hunger Games and
Philosophy Begin!,’ in George A Dunn and Nicholas Michaud, eds, The Hunger Games

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forces us to question our consumerism that forces children into slave labour; it
compels us to confront our perverse conception of entertainment as the pur-
pose of life; it challenges our use of realistic battlefield computer games; it calls
into question our acceptance of the war on terror and having it—and dead and
maimed children—televised into our living rooms.33 Moreover, it illuminates
the modern preoccupation with self and the disengagement from morality and
political engagement that Taylor critiques.34 Perhaps the challenge lies not so
much in seeing this as a dystopian future but as political allegory of the pres-
ent and our dysfunctional structures and unsustainable systems. Julie Clawson
emphasizes how Panem parallels our society:

Oppression crushes hope in whatever way it can—through lack of re-

sources, denial of freedoms, and the threat of violence. This is Katniss’s
world in The Hunger Games, it was Jesus’ world under Rome, and it is the
lived experience of people all over the world today.35

When luxurious lifestyles and privileged positions rely on the suffering of oth-
ers, human nature is not inclined to give up what we think is ours by right,
despite the harm done to our souls and neighbours.36 It is little wonder the
books depicting Panem’s sick society, and a movement resisting the Empire,
are popular among a generation dissatisfied with contemporary global culture
and politics and its empty promises of consumerism, militarism and reality
television. The parallels are not limited to oppression; they also suggest a ca-
pacity for goodness and heroism arising in ordinary people.37 Katniss as a pro-
paganda tool becomes the hero of Panem’s rebellious districts, but she inspires
rebellion against the status quo of injustice in many young adult readers.
Katniss catalyzes Panem’s resistance movement towards the vision and
reality of a world where people experience freedom and self-determination,
and make food available for all. Even in her final grief and revenge-driven ac-
tion, she single-handedly thinks she removes political evil from society. The
dilemma is there is no guarantee another leader will not buy into the same
vengeance-driven violence-wielding agenda that Panem co-opts people into.

and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), pp. 1–6,
pp. 4–5.
33  Hand, ‘Come Now,’ 2–5.
34  Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity.
35  Clawson, Hunger Games, kindle 311.
36  Ibid., kindle 483.
37  Dunn and Michaud, ‘Introduction,’ p. 5.

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Why are these Hunger Games books popular, especially as young adult fic-
tion? They are fast-paced books of action and intrigue, with enticing romance
and tensions of identity and friendship woven through the narrative. Such
plots are all too familiar. But the intriguing underlying sub-plot is of rebellion
against imperial forces that seek to control society for selfish ends. The char-
acters learn to distrust those who would seize power in the name of usurping
dictators, only then to display their own corrupted influence. Hunger Games
alludes to the futility of replacing one oppressive system with another oppres-
sive system: oppressive systems cannot be replaced with the elimination of
governance. Hunger Games provokes the question of responsible government.
Yoram Hazony offers a reasoned political philosophy of a reading of the
narrative of the Hebrew Bible that oscillates between empire and anarchy as
Israel seeks a middle third way.38 The Hebrew Bible is suspicious of central-
ized power. In Genesis, God is depicted as judging the Tower of Babel, and
calling Abraham out of the city to follow God. Perhaps, in an anarchist vein,
Abraham wanders in Canaan. Sheer economics and needing food in time of
famine forces his descendants (Jacob and twelvesons and families) to return
to living under the responsibility of a state. The Hebrew hunger games, thus,
begin in Egypt. Like the twelve districts of Panem, the twelve tribes of Israel
are offered protection, but suffer loss of freedom. The book of Exodus narrates
their eventual response, which was resistance to the injustices of the state, acts
of public disobedience and violent departure.39
If Genesis and Exodus highlight the evils of empire, the book of Judges
shows the experience of anarchy. Wanting to be free of subjugation of domi-
nating rulers, they adopt leaders who refuse to elevate themselves too highly.
Gideon responds to the Israelites’ request that he rule: “I will not rule over you,
and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” (Judg. 8:23)
Anarchy does not work out as ideally as they hope and the book of Judges
shows the disintegration of the vision and the slide into barbarism, ending in
concubine rape and war.40
The Hebrew Bible thus identifies the twin poles of empire and anarchy that
good and right political leadership steers between, as Hazony comments:

38  Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2012), pp. 140–60.
39  Ibid., pp. 142–43.
40  Ibid., pp. 145–49.

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134 Cronshaw

The Bible understands the political order as oscillating between the

imperial sate, as represented by Egypt of the Pharoahs, and anarchy, as
represented by Israel in the period of the judges. The first road leads to
bondage; the second to dissolution and civil war. Neither alternative,
then, can serve as the basis for the freedom of a people. The question
with which the biblical narrative wrestles is whether there is a third op-
tion, which can secure a life of freedom for Israel in the face of these two
mortal threats.41

With empire is as oppressive and anarchy as unliveable, Israel drafts a new

social contract with a standing system of centralized politics and military—
that is, a kingdom. The law refers to the inevitability of a king but warns their
power should be systematically limited, with not too many armies, foreign alli-
ances or taxes (Deut. 17:14–20). Samuel warns Israel what a kingdom involves,
yet they persist in seeking a king and Samuel anoints Saul (1 Sam. 8–12). The
Hebrew Bible legitimates the need for a state that protects from foreign inva-
sion and civil disturbance, but ideally has limits. The kings increasingly de-
parted from the Deuteronomic law of the king. They showed a tendency for
violence, oppression and idolatry, and the kingdom unravels as Solomon’s son
demands more taxes and Israel splinters.42
The Hebrew narrative is not just a lesson for Jews but for political states in
general. There is a need to steer between the evils of empire and the threats
of anarchy, and establish good government with responsible rulers. Although
it did not effectively last for Israel, Hazony offers a biblical defence of the lim-
ited state as it is presented in Deut. 17: ‘one headed by a king whose life is not
consumed in the unending quest for ever greater power, but is instead subject
to a law that his higher than his own whims, and whose purpose is the well-
being of the nation.’43 This is where the political ideals of Israel led, as Hazony
continues to argue:

The most important step in seeking the political philosophy of the

History of Israel is to recognize that in the Biblical narrative, the Israelites
are delivered not once, but twice. They are delivered once in Exodus, and
once again in Samuel. Their first deliverer is Moses, who redeems them
from the tyranny of the state; their second deliverer is David, who re-
deems them from anarchy. It is in the early stages of his son Solomon’s

41  Ibid., p. 160.

42  Ibid., pp. 150–59.
43  Ibid., pp. 153–54.

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reign that we find the political condition the Bible depicts as the best that
can be achieved by man—an achievement that is at once both fleeting
and real.44

Ironically, by the end of Solomon’s reign, Israel is in no doubt that they too are
capable of empire, and so the quest for a limited state is an ongoing challenge.
Hunger Games narrates deliverance from the evils of the empire, expressed
in the oppression and excesses of the Capitol of Panem ruling over the twelve
districts. It leaves us uncertain about Panem’s future. Will the rulers continue
imperial systems? Will Katniss move beyond anarchic rebellion and exercise
positive leadership for the greater good of the new society? This does not mean
that Hunger Games has an unsatisfying ending. Rather it leaves the reader with
Katniss’ dilemma. Good politics does not just oppose the evils of imperial op-
pression, but also steers away from anarchy and builds healthy systems for the
greater good.

7 Authentic Vocational Call?

Hunger Games ends with Katniss uncertain about her contribution to the new
society. The personal struggle Katniss and Peeta must work through is how
to be authentic to themselves. In a world of shallow appearances and media-
saturated voyeurism, where people are heavily costumed and cosmeticized,
Peeta is disgusted by the lack of authenticity. He does not want to get drawn
into the hype, nor be taken over by the barbaric violence of the Games. In a
moment of quiet transparency with Katniss he says he wants to remain (and
die as) himself: “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some
kind of monster that I’m not.”45 Later, he has to struggle with what is real and
not real, after being brainwashed by the Capitol. Peeta’s move towards self-
determination is a reflection of what Taylor acknowledges is a positive aspect
of the individualism of the modern world; it is the idea that Rousseau articu-
lated of self-determining freedom when an individual decides for him/herself,
rather than conforming to society.46
Katniss, similarly, in her Quest is fighting for her world but also struggling
to identify and find her self. She grew up quickly and took on the role of fam-
ily provider, then as an extension of that became tribute, portrayed herself as

44  Ibid., pp. 159–60.

45  Collins, Hunger Games, p. 171.
46  Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity, pp. 2–3, 16.

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136 Cronshaw

the girl-on-fire (and girl-in-love) during the Hunger Games, and ultimately
became the rebellion’s Mockingjay mascot. In the end, despite successes, she
is depressed and alone: ‘Gradually, I am forced to accept who I am. A badly
burned girl with no wings. With no fire. And no sister.’47 We could read this as
a tragic statement of disbelief in a transcendent messiah.
Katniss’ father had told her the water plant after which she is named grows
like a weed and is edible, and so he said “as long as you can find yourself, you’ll
never starve.”48 That is a profound truth for a girl thrust into her country’s des-
tiny as a feminist saviour of the world who needs to find hope again. It is also
profound for young adult and other readers wondering about their contribu-
tion to making the world a better place. Knowing the world and its deep social
justice needs is best integrated with a journey of looking inward and knowing
your own self, and responding out of a healthy sense of vocational identity.
The task and ultimacy of ‘finding your self’ is the key Enlightenment delusion,
as Taylor says. It is today translated into the ethics of personal ‘authenticity’.49
The ‘authenticity’ that Katniss’ father seems to imply is not found in mere vo-
cational identity; it is not necessarily the path to fulfilment. To face the crises
and malaise of modern times, some commentators suggest we need to over-
come the preoccupation with notions of authenticity, self-fulfilment and inte-
riority that potentially undermine social commitment and common values.50
Taylor discusses these issues, suggesting that the first malaise of modern
times is individualism. It is a remarkable development in the history of ideas
that we recognize the right of people to adopt their own convictions and
choose their own way of life. Yet, in becoming independent of hierarchical ex-
pectations, we have also disengaged from their related meaning and moral pur-
pose and retreated into narcissism, hedonism and survivalism.51 According to
Taylor, ‘the dark side of individualism is a centring on the self, which both flat-
tens and narrows our lives, makes them poorer in meaning, and less concerned
with others or society’.52 Taylor’s prescription is not to disparage the search for
authenticity. He argues we maximize our authentic self through looking not
just to self-development but also prioritizing relationships and contributing

47  Collins, Mockingjay, p. 409; Clawson, Hunger Games, kindle 2028.

48  Collins, Hunger Games, p. 63.
49  Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity, p. 27.
50  Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), p. 61;
discussed in Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity, cover, pp. 13–14; Darren Cronshaw,’ Saving Souls
and Listening Hearts: Implications for Missional Leaders from Richard Rohr’s Immortal
Diamond: The Search for Our True Self’, Colloquium 46:2 (November 2014), 242–54.
51  Taylor, Ethics of Authenticity, pp. 2–3, 16.
52  Ibid., p. 4.

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Resisting the Empire in Young Adult Fiction 137

to the world through participatory government. We can discover our true self
and not have to disengage from moral frameworks or ignore promoting the
common good. Part of our identity is who we are in relationship with our com-
munity. Ignoring that solidarity is what ‘flattens and narrows our lives’.53
Katniss’ narrative is the modern journey of searching for personal identity
and sovereignty, but also being reminded of community solidarity. She devel-
ops relationships, as Taylor explains people do, not just for fulfilment but for
identity construction, and in some cases for instrumental purposes (as with
Peeta, to get sympathetic help from sponsors). She is tempted to disengage
from the struggle for freedom, but realizes her responsibility for contribut-
ing to a fair and just world. She engages in broader social and political action,
but despairs when the result is not a definitive solution. She knows what she
stands against (the oppressive Empire), but uncertain what she stands for. At
the conclusion of the trilogy she is not able to articulate policy for a new soci-
ety. Worn out by the struggle, she longs for the ‘ordinary life’.54 In the dystopian
or satirical world of Hunger Games, even when the Games are no longer, the
challenges of balancing and integrating authenticity to self with broader social
action continue.
Any group that longs for freedom does not want to replace imperial sov-
ereignty, however oppressive and evil, with merely another form of imperial
sovereignty. Yet neither can an imperial sovereignty or any other group-based
sovereignty be replaced by personal sovereignty alone. The problem in mod-
ern society that Taylor identified is that the elevation of personal ‘authenticity’,
or what we might call personal sovereignty, is sometimes at the expense of
citizenship and communal responsibility. We are not trapped in the system of
capitalism, bureaucracy or industrial society; we have the opportunity to work
and struggle for a better system. The journey of discovering our authentic self,
at its best, will involve not just self-centred striving for what is fulfilling for us
as individuals, but prioritizing the social and political action necessary for fos-
tering a better society for all.

8 Conclusion

The Hunger Games trilogy ends with open-ended questions—what will be-
come of Katniss? What will become of Panem and what are the alternative
socio-political systems for its future? As works of young adult fiction, Hunger

53  Ibid., pp. 4, 9–10, 21, 40.

54  Ibid., pp. 11, 49–53.

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138 Cronshaw

Games are a source of discourse around themes of sovereignty and raise the
place of political resistance against unjust authorities, but they do not go far
enough in also critiquing underlying unjust gender and ethnic relations and
the use of violence. In the imaginative world of Panem, as in our world, these
issues remain. The popularity of the stories suggests implications for inviting
the voice of young adults into the broader discussion and debate about foster-
ing social justice, but this needs to include opposing injustice at all levels.
At least the protagonists in the books actively raise the question of justice
in the political space. Perhaps the influence of the characters is an antidote to
apathy or feelings of powerlessness in young adult readers to change systems
that perpetuate injustice. According to Paul Hanson, the disenchantment with
modern values and collapse of confidence in the ultimacy of progress gives rise
to new apocalyptic hope, and generates renewed interest in apocalyptic litera-
ture of the past. Apathy and powerlessness in the ancient world is what gave
rise to apocalyptic literature, as opposed to prophetic imagination which actu-
ally engages with politics.55 There is a need to move beyond dreaming about a
better world to activism.
Taylor’s critique of the culture of authenticity and the dangers of indi-
vidualism in the modern world, which we see reflected in Katniss’ struggle,
is appropriate. Discovering one’s authentic self and exercising personal sover-
eignty is not complete unless it also leads to social and political engagement.
Authenticity, at its best, must lead us not just to self-fulfillment, but also com-
munal responsibility and involvement of us all in democratization.
It is merely fantasy conjecture to consider the open-ended question of
what Panem will become. The books are limited in portraying the extent the
new political system can embrace broader justice issues. It is, nevertheless,
a real question for public theology today: what kind of social life is conceiv-
able between the extremes of empire and personal sovereignty? Culminating
in the nineteenth century, the critique and collapse of empires gave rise to
the proliferation of modern nation states as Derek McDougall develops. The
Westphalian system of nation states is limited in dealing with global environ-
mental and security issues, and McDougall urges religious traditions to cooper-
ate in promoting a global ethic while accommodating diversity.56

55  Paul Hanson, The Dawn of the Apocalyptic (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1979), pp. 1–2.
56  Derek McDougall, ‘The Globalization of the Nation-State: Westphalia and Beyond’,
conference paper, ‘Claiming Sovereignty: Theological Perspectives’, Whitley College,
Melbourne, 22–24 August 2014.

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Beyond individualist authenticity, do Christian theologians offer just the

communitarian authenticity of Christian faith communities? McDougall
mentions the communitarian solution of Stanley Hauerwas, drawing a sharp
distinction between Christian community and the nation state. This commu-
nitarian theology (ecclesiology and missiology) potentially leaves the public
realm without any real hope, however. Hunger Games projects exactly that dys-
topian reality. It does so not even as a future reality but as a present reality. It
has secularized the ancient plots of Exodus-type resistance, but left the public
realm with nothing other than a hope of personal authenticity in an inevitably
tragic world.
Hunger Games implicitly urges asking not just what kind of society do we
want, but how can we empower young people to stand up to be themselves,
to resist the corruption of empire and to forge a better, more civil world that
advances an inclusive common good. There is a desire for social justice among
younger generations; moves are needed from the consciousness of the need
for change to an activism that enacts change, and that should occur at a level
of actual political engagement, not mere online slactivism. Necessarily this en-
ergizing action will include discernment about abuse of power on political,
gendered and ethnic layers. Hunger Games narrates only the first part of this
journey—that is, resisting the empire. The story leaves us with the challenge of
what kind of society should be built in its place, and how to do so with inclu-
sive justice rather than retributive violence.

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented at ‘Claiming Sovereignty:

Theological Perspectives’ conference, Whitley College (22–24 August, 2014),
and at Carey Baptist Grammar School chapels (8–12 September and 14 October,
2014). I am grateful for feedback from conference participants and Carey stu-
dents; conversations with my children Benjamin, Jessie and Emily; and com-
ments on earlier drafts from Beth Barnett, Mark Brett, Jenni Cronshaw, Kristi
Giselsson, Brad Jackel, Mel Jepson, Cathryn McKinney, Julia Rhyder and Karly
Whalley. I have explored related themes also in Darren Cronshaw, ‘Beyond
Divisive Categorization in Young Adult Fiction: Lessons from Divergent’, in
Explorations in Practical Theology: Engaging the Politics of Division, Association
of Practical Theology in Oceania 2017 Conference, ed. Anthony Maher
(forthcoming).

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