Visions of the Future
The social effects of young adult dystopian fiction and its effectiveness as an educational genre
Miriam Lange (1856308)
Supervisor: Dr Cécile Guédon 9 July 2014
Word count: 13,628 words
2 Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 1: Genre, themes, and audience 7
Chapter 2: Ratings and rating systems 21
Chapter 3: Social effects 27
Conclusion 40
3 Introduction
Australian author Sonya Hartnett once said “I believe that the only lastingly important form of writing is writing for children. It is writing that is carried in the reader's heart for a lifetime; it is writing that speaks to the future.” Speculation is always a part of composing a list of the worldwide greatest bestsellers, as the nature of book sales statistics is usually rather unreliable, but most lists compiled by newspapers and websites about books and publishing contain at least these children’s or young adult books in the top 15: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling, The
Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R.
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Veronica Roth’s trilogy Divergent, of which the three novels were published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2011 (Divergent), 2012 (Insurgent), and 2013 (Allegiant), and The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, published by Delacorte Press in 2009 (The Maze Runner), 2010 (The Scorch Trials), and 2011 (The Death Cure). With the success of the movie adaptations of the first two Hunger Games novels and the first
Divergent novel, dystopian fiction for young adults not only occupies a significant place
among best-sellers in print, but also among successful films shown in movie theatres. Yet, despite this popularity and success, dystopian fiction is still a fairly unexplored genre of young adult literature from a scholarly point of view. The most prominent scholars in this field are Carrie Hintz, Balaka Basu, Katherine R. Broad, and Elaine Ostry, who have discussed themes like identity, romance, childhood, class, and technology in their work. In the introduction of their book Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children
and Young Adults, Carrie Hintz and Elaine Ostry briefly touch upon the subject of the
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Young adult dystopian stories deal with a wide variety of issues related to environmental, social, or political concerns. Divergent, The Hunger Games, and The Maze
Runner are similar in many respects, especially looking at themes and plot, but at the
same time offer a critique on vastly different aspects of today’s society: in Divergent, genetic manipulation has gone wrong and resulted in wars, intolerance, conformity, and a bloody struggle for power, while in The Hunger Games, reality TV has become a tool of control and power through cruelty and injustice, but with just enough hope—one child will win the Hunger Games and stay alive—to keep the population in line. James Dashner’s The Maze Runner shows the devastation of environmental destruction caused by the human kind and the ethical questions that ensue. Even many young adults who do not read many books know dystopian stories, since the movie adaptations are also globally available and generally attract large audiences. Young adults belong to a generation that will have to deal with a certain number of issues and dangers of today’s society in the future; for these dystopian fiction can function as a guide.
Several scholars, among whom Carrie Hintz, Balaka Basu, and Katherine R. Broad, claim that the message of The Hunger Games is obvious: violence and injustice are the inevitable result of a totalitarian state. This is a seemingly transparent statement, but when considering some effects that Suzanne Collins’ trilogy has set off, it becomes clear that that might not always be the case for every reader. There are, for instance, many re-enactments of the Games to be found on the internet where teenagers try to ‘kill’ their peers in order to become the victor. There are also Hunger Games camps that do not focus on educating teenagers about injustice and cruel exercise of power, but on surviving and hunting others instead. Online comments from readers about using The
Hunger Games as inspiration for a real-life reality show are sometimes quite scarily
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much about upholding values of morality or integrity; rather, it is dependent upon the presence of a wide audience for them. Some reactions on The Hunger Games, from readers, but also from experts on the topic, show that there might even be an audience for a Hunger Games some time in the future. The Hunger Games is paradoxical in this context: the trilogy condemns the obsessive nature of the citizens of the Capitol when it comes to entertainment, but is the obsession with the Hunger Games that they display while they eagerly await the next Games any different than fans of Collins’ The Hunger
Games eagerly awaiting the next novel or next movie adaptation?
7 Chapter 1: Genre, themes, and audience
Young adult fiction is often mistakenly called a genre. The label ‘young adult’ is given to novels by publishers and merely describes the age group that a particular novel is deemed suitable for. Within that age group, most of the same genres can be found as in adult literature; romance, thriller, action, fantasy, science fiction etc. Dystopian fiction is one of these genres as well and has been increasingly popular among teenagers in recent years, especially since the publication of the first novel of The Hunger Games trilogy in 2008. To understand why, it is important to look at the themes of dystopian fiction for young adults.
Young adults are in between childhood and adulthood, which is reflected in the themes as well; young adult novels often include a mix of themes related to both of those stages in life. These have been identified by scholars and authors such as Chris Crowe, Jonathan Stevens, and John Green and range from school, identity, and sexuality to more broad ‘adult’ themes like class, responsibility, love, and death. It is easy to see that these themes are all connected to the troubles that teenagers could encounter and will have to cope with as they come along, and how it is likely for them to relate to novels and characters that also have to deal with these issues. Every genre has its own additional set of themes of course, but possibly none as seemingly distant from teenage life as dystopian fiction. The themes that can be found in The Hunger Games and The Maze
Runner, as well as in Divergent, are death, murder, torture, sacrifice, trauma, violence,
war, mind control, propaganda, and violation of civil rights. The settings are grim to say the least, with little hope for a better future, and, although they provide a light at the end of the tunnel, the endings of these novels can hardly be called ‘happy’. In The Hunger
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severely traumatised, most of the people they loved died horrible deaths, and the world is in chaos after their triumph over the governmental control. Divergent is arguably even worse in this respect as the main character, Tris, dies in the end and only one city is saved from its oppressors, while the rest of the world remains in a state of subjugation and cruelty.
At first sight, most of the themes discussed in young adult dystopian fiction may seem far from the reality of current teenage life, but that is not the case. The themes in these novels may be an exaggeration, but they are also a part of today’s society on a more subtle level. The themes of mind control and war are good examples of this. All three trilogies deal with mind control in some form or another, through propaganda, mind control serums, or simply by instilling fear, which might seem too extreme, or at least unlikely, to connect to teenage life in an obvious way, but it certainly occurs in today’s society. Look at advertising campaigns for example, many of which are targeted at teens and adolescents, and which take advantage of every technique that could be useful in order to persuade costumers to choose that particular product or service, from the use of colours and design of posters to the background music in television commercials. Peer pressure, the internet, news feeds, and political campaigns are other examples the effects of which should not be taken too lightly. It is unlikely that most teenagers would even consider these to be examples of mind control, which makes them especially susceptible to it, and is therefore highly effective to that age group. It is possible that teenagers respond to themes like mind control in fiction because it allows them to realise it is already a part of their lives. Dystopian fiction makes it possible for teenagers to become more aware of these matters.
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part of their lives. Young adult dystopian fiction often features war as a prominent instrument for the main characters to secure a, hopefully, better future. According to Suzanne Collins, war is the most important theme in The Hunger Games. Her father was a career military and, in Collins’ words, “felt it was his responsibility to make sure that all his children had an understanding about war, about its cost, its consequences” (Grossman). This inspired Collins to write a war story for kids of every age, three in total: a picture book entitled Year of the Jungle, The Underland Chronicles, a series of five fantasy novels for children approximately between the ages of 9 and 14, and, of course,
The Hunger Games for young adults. Much like in Collins’ trilogy, war in The Maze Runner
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fiction not only shows the trauma the protagonists experience when the former happens, but it also places a special emphasis on the trauma of killing others. It does not portray war as glorious; rather, it presents the inevitable consequences of murder on a large scale, even when the outcome is ‘favourable’ for the protagonists. This is important, because, as Chris Crowe argues, “[...] when today’s kids become tomorrow’s adults, they’ll have something to say about if or when or where wars will be fought, and good YA books about war can help today’s teenagers appreciate the blessings of peace and the horrors of war. And maybe, just maybe, that appreciation will inspire them to do whatever they can to preserve peace in our country and around the world” (Crowe 159). He goes by asserting that young adult war fiction “humanizes the ‘other’ by portraying enemies as genuine human beings with qualities and values similar to our own” (Crowe 161). This is certainly also the case with dystopian fiction, as war is so prominently present in dystopian novels, and it is true for all three trilogies discussed here as well; the enemies of the protagonists, the Others, are essentially an exaggeration of citizens of western society. The reader takes the form of the Other in dystopian stories, and is thus the one who inflicts pain and destruction on the main characters. In The Hunger Games,
The Maze Runner, and Divergent, it is obvious who the Other is—the Capitol, WICKED,
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become if they are unaware of the dangers in today’s society, as well as how much pain and suffering that could eventually follow. In her article “The Dandelion in the Spring: Utopia as Romance in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Trilogy,” Katherine R. Broad touches upon this subject as well; “the citizens of Panem are glued to their TV screen watching Katniss’s romance unfold just as the reader eagerly turns the pages of the book wondering how the budding triangle will resolve” (Broad 119). It is doubtful that the citizens in the districts enjoy watching the Hunger Games as Broad seems to imply here—after all, they have no choice but to send their children away to fight to the death and are forced to watch it. However, readers can easily identify themselves with the citizens of the Capitol, because romance sells, and other aspects, like violence and death, are quickly overshadowed by it—a fact that Haymitch, Katniss, and Peeta are well aware of. They are able to manipulate the Games and the citizens of the Capitol by playing out their role of star-crossed lovers, which eventually gives them the opportunity to win the Games. This reflects western society, since we, as citizens of that society, often willingly remain ignorant to this kind of manipulation by the media as well. The irony that is pointed out above by Katherine R. Broad is a perfect example of that willingness.
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about human nature, how society functions, and the influence they can have on the future.
In Contemporary Dystopian Fiction For Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers, Basu Balaka, Katherine R. Broad, and Carrie Hintz distinguish several “thematic threads in the genre that reflect how the central fears and concerns of the contemporary world are grafted onto a dystopian landscape” (Balaka et al. 3): environmental destruction, post-apocalyptic worlds, conformity, and enslavement. However, this might be a bit oversimplified, because most dystopian novels cannot be assigned to just one of these thematic threads, but are a combination of two or more. Balaka, Broad, and Hintz use
The Hunger Games as an example of enslavement, because of the capitol’s totalitarian
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were to rebel, the Capitol would not stand a chance in maintaining its control on the districts, yet they do not, instead they conform to the rules dictated by the Capitol. Similarly, if the selected tributes collectively refused to take part in the Games, the system of an annual Hunger Games would soon be put to an end. But because conformity is a part of human nature, it takes 75 editions of the Games for the citizens to finally start a rebellion and stand up for their rights.
Divergent takes conformity as its thematic thread a step further. Due to genetic
manipulation, a large part of the world’s population is ‘genetically damaged’ (GD’s), meaning that their personality is not as diverse anymore as the ‘genetically pure’ (GP’s); they supposedly lack certain virtues or emotions. In order to find the GP’s, large groups of people are placed in big cities, Chicago in Tris’ case, as an experiment and are expected to conform to one of the five factions: dauntless (bravery), erudite (intelligence), candor (truthfulness), abnegation (selflessness), or amity (peace). None of them have any knowledge of being in an experiment; the experiment is simply their reality. The idea is that the ones who cannot comply with this system, because they cannot adapt to just one virtue, are clearly GP’s and are pulled out of the experiment. Through manipulation and propaganda, the organisation in charge of the experiments successfully controls the populace inside it by giving them a ‘choice’ at the age of sixteen: they have to choose the faction they most identify with and stick to it for the rest of their lives without a possibility of escape. They are given the illusion of freedom to a certain extent, but the truth is that they are kept in the dark about the purpose of their existence, namely their participation in a purification experiment. Beside conformity,
Divergent also meets the terms of two other thematic threads: the use of serums as a
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post-apocalyptic world, as war has destroyed many parts of the world and left most cities in ruin.
The Maze Runner conforms to three thematic threads as well: environmental
destruction, post-apocalyptic worlds, and enslavement. They are not all overly present in the novels, but are mostly part of a domino effect; sun flares have destroyed many parts of the world including many food resources (environmental destruction), so the government released a man-made virus as a solution to overpopulation. However, there was no stopping the virus, which almost destroyed the entire population of planet Earth (post-apocalyptic world). The infected and the healthy are being kept apart by being quarantined in cities in order to contain the virus, and the young adults who were immune to the virus are locked up inside a maze as an experiment in the hope of finding a cure (enslavement). All three groups are completely at the mercy of the government, or, as the government employees call themselves, WICKED.
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if that effort pays off, reading dystopian novels can also be especially rewarding as a learning experience. In her article “What Faction Are You In? The Pleasure of Being Sorted in Veronica Roth’s Divergent,” Balaka Basu highlights the theme of fitting in by discussing the idea that Divergent is largely based on adolescents’ attraction to personality quizzes; “regardless of their interpretations [...] the proliferation of these quizzes reveal adolescents’ enormous interest in being sorted—especially by an external force that can make one’s inner mind legible” (Basu 23). She uses J. K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter series as an example, as the division of Hogwarts into four houses that represent
bravery, loyalty, intelligence, or ambition set off the creation of dozens online quizzes that will show the participant in which house he or she belongs. She argues that
Divergent is essentially a story revolving around one big personality quiz. There are
even several websites that have quizzes to find out in which faction you belong. This is not surprising since teenagers struggle with the idea of identity, and personality quizzes seem like an easy way of finding out who they are and what role they can play in today’s society. However, these kind of online quizzes are problematic, not simply because their accuracy leaves much to be desired, but mainly because they create a paradox: they put labels on the participants and prevent independent thinking, while, conversely,
Divergent criticizes labels and encourages free thinking and free will. It does deal with
issues like the importance of community, finding one’s identity, and belonging somewhere, but it clearly condemns the way these matters are dealt with in the world of
Divergent; once you pick a faction, you are stuck there for the rest of your life with no
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of varying, and sometimes even contradicting, strengths and weaknesses, which is what fundamentally makes us human. Denying that idea and sacrificing parts of our humanity is the same as losing ourselves. It is part of the human condition to struggle with questions of freedom and identity; a feature which teenagers may encounter with great acumen during their formative years. The Divergent series accurately describes how people want to be free of labels and constrictions, but at the same time are terrified of this freedom, because there is nothing to fall back on; thus this freedom would give them complete responsibility of the consequences of their choices.
The Maze Runner explores human nature to an even greater extent than Divergent
and The Hunger Games. It deals with what happens to human beings when they have no past, no laws, and no functional society left; the only thing to count on is their instinct to achieve the goal that is ingrained in the genetic make-up of human kind: surviving. The protagonist, Thomas, finds himself in the Glade, a large open space within an enormous maze, without any memories and he has no clue as to what is going on. The boys who live in the Glade have no idea either. The ones who arrived at the Glade first had no other choice than finding a way to survive and building their own civilisation anew. This kind of back to basic narrative shows how human instinct works: from trying to create order from chaos, picking a leader, destroying the weak, preserving the strong, and exploring the line between civilisation and savagery. This goes for the other characters in The Maze Runner as well. The people working for WICKED, for example, try to save the human race by separating the healthy people from the infected (the ‘cranks’) and putting immune children through a series of cruel tests to find a cure for the Flare. Even the locked-up cranks have some kind of system in their way of living, forming groups according to their level of insanity, even though madness is a daily part of their lives. The
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few in order to save many and if humankind is worth saving when it comes at the cost of our very humanity.
In view of the fact that young adult dystopian fiction often discusses and incorporates universal themes related to human nature in general, it should not be unexpected that this genre of young adult fiction also appeals to an adult audience. Young adult fiction is, obviously, first and foremost targeted at young adults. However, one of the reasons for the massive popularity of young adult fiction is that there are certainly not just adolescents who read and enjoy these books; the full extent of the adult audience must not be underestimated. According to a study from Bowker Market Research from 2012, 55% of the book sales of young adult novels are a result of buyers over 18 years of age, of which 78% buy the books for themselves. Most adults who buy young adult novels are between 30 and 44. This phenomenon first became apparent when the Harry Potter novels were published. Soon after the publication of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, special adult versions were created, which simply meant that the covers were darker and more ‘mature’, intended for adults who did not want to carry around a brightly coloured children’s book. This ploy became successful enough for other young adult novels to adopt the same method and there are special adult covers of The Hunger Games and Divergent as well.
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remarkable to see that the latter is rated differently from the other two, apart from the appropriate age group, which is 13 years and older, while The Hunger Games and
Divergent almost have the same rating in every aspect. According to Common Sense
Media, an educational value to The Maze Runner is ‘not applicable’: the novel is rather violent, and the positive messages and role models are significantly less present than in the other trilogies. Yet, the age rating for these novels is the same. For comparison, the fantasy trilogy Twilight is rated as age 13 and older as well, but is described as “very mild by the standards of its genre” and City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments is rated at 12, even though “there is lots of fantasy violence with swords and knives here, including some that is gory, with fountains and puddles of blood, throat stabbing and cutting, etc.”
Additionally, there are no adult covers for The Maze Runner, which seems to suggest that Dashner’s trilogy does not have a noteworthy adult audience. The Maze
Runner is indeed a bit different from the other two trilogies, because the violence is
much more graphic. There is hardly any romance to be found, and there are only a few female and many male protagonists, so it could be argued that Dashner’s book series is more oriented towards a male audience. The Maze Runner has not received as much media attention as The Hunger Games and Divergent either. It is also generally lesser-known. This might be, as Meghan Lewit argues in “Why Do Female Authors Dominate Young-Adult Fiction?” because “[...] the YA genre tends to favor female authors and audiences” (Lewit). It is possible that media attention for a book series is reduced when it features a male protagonist and is aimed at a male audience. However, it is interesting to note here that The Maze Runner, like The Hunger Games and Divergent, has been adapted to film and is to be released at the end of the year. Most film adaptations of young adult novels since Harry Potter have been aimed at largely female audience (e.g.
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tell if The Maze Runner has the potential to become a successful franchise, but judging by the success of the books, the casting of actors who are established teen idols, and its fairly unique plot, it may just be a great success.
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In “Teaching Dystopian Fiction to a Consumer Class,” Rachel Wilkinson recognizes the general reason behind the blooming of the genre; “dystopian literature [...] is to consuming as Frankenstein is to cloning—theoretical exploration and warning” (Wilkinson 22). What is at the core of every dystopian novel, regardless of whether it is written for adults or adolescents, is that it warns its readers about the dangers of certain elements of our current society by exaggerating those aspects and placing them in a world set in the future. The diverse, substantial, and often intense themes and the broad audience of young adult dystopian fiction create a solid foundation, as well as many opportunities, for the genre’s educational potential to flourish and positively influence today’s adolescents. When looking at ratings and rating systems for young adult books and films however, and the substantial differences between them, it becomes clear that those opportunities and the genre’s potential are not picked up on properly because they are severely limited by the lack of ratings for young adult books.
Chapter 2: Ratings and rating systems
The film industry went through numerous challenges based on content since the beginning of film production at the end of the 19th century. In 1927, Hollywood’s ideas of
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providing accurate and useful information. The rating system as it still exists today is based on the idea that film makers are free to express their artistic ideas, as the first amendment describes, and ratings are merely meant to give advice on the maturity of the content. CARA (Classification and Rating Administration) is in charge of the ratings board that is made up from an independent group of parents who watch the movies that are to be rated and assign a rating to them based on their judgement of which audience is appropriate for those movies. The ratings do not dictate the age limit for a particular movie, but rather gives parents the information they need to decide whether their child is mature enough to watch it. There are currently five ratings: G (general audience, all ages admitted), PG (parental guidance suggested, some material may not be suitable for children), PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13), R (restricted, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian), and NC-17 (no one 17 and under admitted). In theory, film makers are not obliged to send in their movies for rating, but the rating system is so ingrained in the movie industry that most movies that are released have been or will be rated, especially those that are to be shown in movie theatres. No comparable rating system currently exists for young adult books. The only information provided by publishing houses that is somewhat related to rating is the broad age group that young adult novels are deemed suitable for: teenagers between 12 and 18 years of age.
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describing these violent scenes in a graphic manner. In the movie adaptations, violence is still present, but it is seriously toned down; there is not much blood, violence is suggestive instead of explicit—for example through sound effects and clever camera angles—and the violent scenes are frequently filmed with a shaky camera, especially in the first Hunger Games movie, resulting in blurry action sequences. Nevertheless, the story remains the same and all the themes that are present in the novels can also be found in the movie; the morals and warnings in the story stay intact. The problem that should be addressed here is that the novels and the movies have the same age rating, namely 13 years and older, while there is an obvious difference in content. For movies, there are strict rules concerning what is appropriate for which audience, guiding the rating committee’s decisions. The PG-13 rating warns parents that some content may not be appropriate for children younger than 13. In the “Classification and Rating Rules”, compiled by the MPAA, it is stated that “there may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence.” Film makers of young adult movies often consciously aim for a PG or PG-13 rating in order to ensure a larger audience and is in that sense a effective marketing tool. In 2011, the director of
The Hunger Games, Gary Ross, told Entertainment Weekly that “it’s not going to be an
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negatively influence ticket sales. On the contrary, it ensured a larger audience and the box office numbers increased for the fourth and fifth film, decreased for the sixth, and increased again for the final two films. There are even scenes or details purposely left out of the movies to adhere to the PG-13 rating. In the Divergent novel for example, there is a scene where it is suggested that three people try to rape Tris and throw her in a chasm. This scene is also present in the movie, but without the rape episode. In The
Hunger Games novel, Cato’s death is much more gruesome than in the movie as it takes a
whole night of screaming and begging in agony for Katniss to finally kill him and take him out of his misery, while in the movie adaptation, this takes less than a minute. Also, as a psychological confrontation, the mutts that attack Katniss and Peeta in the novel wear the eyes of the tributes that have already died in the arena, but this is left out in the movie as well.
Part of the rating system is that the movie trailers have to reflect the maturity of the content of the movie and are also tagged with a rating, so people will know beforehand if a movie is appropriate for children of a certain age. These ratings can also easily be found on the cover of DVDs and Blu-rays through a ‘rating box.’ These rating boxes specifically explain why a movie has a particular rating. The reasons for a PG-13 rating can vary from ‘strong language’ to ‘images of carnage.’ The Hunger Games movie, for example, is tagged with “intense violent thematic material and disturbing images - all involving teens” while the Divergent movie is tagged with “intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality.”
For children’s books, there are suggested age ranges that are displayed on the cover of the books: 0-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. The problem with young adult novels, and especially with dystopian novels like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze
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the books themselves; there is no rating. Novels like these are usually placed in a young adult section in book stores and libraries, but ‘young adult’ is an umbrella term for teenagers between 12 and 18 according to most publishing houses and there is obviously a distinction between what is appropriate for 12-year-olds and 18-year-olds, even when it is taken into consideration that some teenagers are more mature than others. As demonstrated in chapter 1, there are websites where information can be found regarding age suggestions based on the content of particular novels. Nevertheless, these are unofficial ratings and do not appear anywhere on, or in, the books. Sometimes the colours and images on book covers give some clues about the maturity of the content, but there are vast differences between book covers of dystopian novels; from dark and simplistic, like the most well-known book covers of The Hunger Games trilogy, with black, fiery red, or icy blue as the background colour and the image of a mockingjay bird as its only prominent feature, to colourful and detailed, like the book covers of The
Maze Runner trilogy, with comic-book-like paintings that show a scene from the story as
a hint to the readers what is waiting for them within the pages, so not much can be deduced from them.
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requires much more imagination, which is always individual and unique. It would also not be effective to use the same system of age ranges that are used for children’s books, because that idea overlooks the fact that some teenagers are much more mature than other teenagers of the same age, which makes small age ranges particularly ineffective and which is why providing clear information is much more important than giving suggestions based on age. Age suggestions in themselves are helpful, but unfortunately they are often viewed as rules instead of guidelines.
The Dutch system of rating movies and TV shows (kijkwijzer) is interesting to consider in this case, as it is similar to the American system, but at the same time also has the potential to work for novels. The way this system works is that there a five markers concerning age that show the minimum age of the audience that the movie is appropriate for in order to avoid harmful content, much like the American system: AL (all ages), 6, 9, 12, and 16. Additionally, there are six markers in the form of pictures that indicate the themes that are present in the movie and explain the minimum age markers: violence (a fist), fear (a spider), sex (two pairs of feet), racism (one black silhouette of a person standing in front of several white silhouettes), drug and alcohol abuse (a syringe), and offensive language (a figure who is shouting). The picture system is particularly useful because it is clear and only one glance is needed to receive information on the content of the movie or TV show. This would also work perfectly for young adult novels, because it does not take up much space on the book covers and at the same time, it does not dictate who is old enough to read a certain book, but merely gives suggestions.
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certainly existent. A study by Jaques D. Lempers and Dania S. Clarke-Lempers from 1992, for example, demonstrates that teenagers react differently to the world around them according to their age, in this particular case by examining the relationships teenagers have with their family, friends, and acquaintances. This study even divides adolescents in three categories: young (11-13-year-old), middle (14-16-year-old), and late adolescents (17-19-year-old). Surely, when a production company produces a movie adaptation of a young adult dystopian novel and has to adjust violent and scary elements in order to adhere to a PG-13 rating, the publishing company of the novel should reconsider whether that particular novel is truly appropriate for all teenagers within the scope of the ‘young adult’ label. The lack of rating for young adult novels, and especially dystopian fiction, significantly increases the chance that the influence of those novels on its readers are often more negative than expected or intended by authors, publishers, parents, or teachers. This becomes evident when examining the social effects of young adult dystopian fiction, the many issues that originate from them, and how many of these issues have a relation with the age of teenage readers of dystopian novels.
Chapter 3: Social effects
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even be called inappropriate. It is, for example, not uncommon for teenagers to re-enact
The Hunger Games at school or during parties. On quotev.com, a website where anyone
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the injustices in today’s society. In an interview with The Guardian in 2013, Sutherland explains the value of Collins’ trilogy: “The Hunger Games, Sutherland suggests, is a coded commentary on inequality, power and hope. ‘It just puts things out in the light and lets you have a look at it. And if you take from it what I hope you will take from it, it will make you think a little more pungently about the political environment you live in and not be complacent’” (Carroll). He points out that “it’s getting drastic in this country” and that he wants young audiences to organise and revolt against injustice, because they have been too passive in the last thirty years. “We did it in ‘68” he adds, referring to the worldwide protests and rebellions in 1968 against bureaucracy, consumerism, and war, also known as the ‘year of the barricades’. Sutherland actually creates a good opportunity here for teachers to take up the discussion of what The Hunger Games can teach its readers about today’s society and to engage their students in this by using a generally well-loved trilogy that students will most likely be interested in. Bristol Eastern High School’s throws away this opportunity and takes no notice of its potential as didactic material by disregarding any form of interpretation or consideration of its educational content. The games mentioned above are innocent enough, but the nature of a re-enactment is that it blurs the line between fiction and reality and at some point this could become problematic, especially considering there are already several cases to be named here which illustrate that the line between fiction and reality has faded considerably. In August 2013, for example, there was much controversy and media attention concerning a summer camp hosted by Country Day School in Florida based on
The Hunger Games. Lisa Gartner from the Tampa Bay Times visited the camp and wrote
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Martenfeld. ‘Are we going to kill each other first?’ ‘No! No violence this week,’ the camp's head counselor was busy telling the children. But keeping the kids from talk of murder would prove difficult. That was, after all, the driving plot point of The Hunger Games— and this was Hunger Games camp” (Gartner). Several reports say that the children were originally supposed to ‘kill’ each other by pulling flags from each other’s waists, but that the organisation changed the rules ever so slightly after a storm of criticism: instead of ‘killing’ the other contestants by pulling flags, they were supposed to collect ‘lives’. The person with the most lives would win. Country Day School denies this however and claims that ‘killing’ other contestants was never part of the game to begin with.
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Florida is not the only location where Hunger-Games-inspired activities for teenagers have recently taken place. In East Sussex, England, there is a “Hunger Games Training Camp”. The description on the website reads:
The Hunger Games Camp is a fun packed day for the whole family aimed at kids from 10 years and upwards. The Hunger Games Camp includes activities such as a day of training for the games, daily challenges between districts, construct your own arrow to take home, hunt for items from sponsors! Learn basic first aid skills, plant identification, basic first aid, working in a team, wildlife tracking, basic self defence, primitive firelighting, archery and the art of camouflage.
This camp clearly differs from the summer camp in Florida, as that the focus is on survival skills, not on competing with other ‘tributes’. Violence is not a part of this: it is in that sense vastly different from the Country Day School summer camp. This kind of approach to The Hunger Games is a much better tie-in with the story, as it does not necessarily cancel out the didactic value of Collins’ novels, even though it does not make use of it either. There will also be a summer camp in Naperville, Illinois, based on
Divergent in June, July, and August 2014. Like the camp in East Sussex, the activities in
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day” (Springen). A part of each day is reserved for discussing other dystopian novels, for instance In the After series by Demitria Lunetta. The owners of Anderson’s Bookshops, who will host Camp Divergent, report that Veronica Roth “liked the camp idea” when they mentioned it to her at the annual ALA (American Library Association) conference in 2013, but she has not given an answer yet as to whether she will be attending. The Hunger Games Training Camp and Camp Divergent are less controversial and troubling, and much more educational and positive, as well as respectful towards the respective novels they are based on, than re-enactments and camps like the one hosted by Country Day School.
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devoted entirely to questions and concerns parents may have about allowing their children to participate in the camp, where information is provided on safety measures, “benefits for teenagers”, and the reason for organising a Hunger Games camp, the purpose of the camp is clarified:
It would be preferable if all teenagers were self motivated to explore the natural world and get outdoors (and some are) and that it didn’t take a trilogy of books or films such as the Hunger Games, which are violent in parts, to act as the catalyst for many of them. But the reality is the books and films do inspire and encourage them, and can act as just the hook needed, to coax many teenagers into participating on a healthy outdoor based camp with bushcraft and wilderness skills, which they might otherwise not be attracted to. We have to meet teenagers where they are at (WildWise).
It is interesting that the organisers mention that they would have preferred to use other methods to encourage teenagers to participate in outdoor activities. They give the impression that using a violent trilogy to achieve this goal is regrettable, but also a necessary means to an end. In light of this standpoint, it is remarkable that they do incorporate the violent aspects of The Hunger Games in this camp, while the example of Camp Divergent clearly shows that including violence is not necessary to encourage teenagers to take part in outdoor activities and that a positive and educational approach can work just as well.
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claimed that producing real-life Hunger Games might not be that much of a stretch. She admits to be impressed by the way the Capitol producers, like Seneca Crane, handle the Games. She says that “being able to conjure anything you want in this ridiculous control room was pretty cool. Not that I want to go conjuring hellbeasts, but if I could be like, ‘Oh, a giant sweeper bar would be really great here, let me just summon that up,’ that would be awesome” (Jones). If successful reality TV show producers like Jones admire
The Hunger Games, one can speculate that a production of a Hunger Games may come to
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at first, reality shows seemed so shocking, especially to someone looking to write a piece of criticism about something new that was on television. Now they really are the norm. People have accepted them as the kind of entertainment that they want. [...] I don’t think there’s very much that could raise that kind of ire as it once did. If you were to tune into your average network competition show, it’d be hard for anyone to feel outrage—we have to look to future post-Apocalypse reality TV to be shocked (Jones).
This is not a particularly strong argument, as Jones’ circular reasoning offers no proof to the assertion that reality shows are the kind of entertainment people want. Also, the suggestion that nobody could feel outrage while watching a reality show is preposterous since reality TV is one of the most criticized kinds of TV entertainment, often because of the misleading use of the word ‘reality’, the financial exploitation of the contestants, or because of its frequently questionable morality.
In March 2012, Dominique Marvin, a user of hypable.com, a website with reviews, quizzes, and news written by fans of books, TV shows, and movies for other fans, wrote an opinion piece on what would happen if the Hunger Games were real:
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reaches a boiling point, which it will according to Girard, a scapegoat will have to be found and be punished. Who is to say this punishment could never take the form of a Hunger Games?
On the popular book website goodreads.com, someone posted a question in The
Hunger Games discussion section: “does anyone want the Hunger Games to happen?”
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who posted those comments seem to be oblivious to the severity of their proposals were they to become reality.
When looking at blogs and articles written by parents about whether or not they want their children to read books like The Hunger Games, the opinions are diverse. In an article posted on modernmom.com, “Can Your Ten Year Old Handle The Hunger
Games?”, Leslie Morgan Steiner, mother of a 10-year-old daughter, writes about Collins’ novel: “A dark yet hopeful plot line sure to tantalize teenagers of any generation. Because teenagers, and perhaps a few 10-year-olds, know what it is to be filled with hope that you can change the world” (Steiner). This article focuses on the idea that children cannot be protected from life’s realities, because some dark themes are already part of a child’s everyday life, for example bullying, divorce, injustice, or death. Steiner argues that fiction can provide meaning and a ground for reflection to help children coping with the harsh truth of reality already present into their lives, so they are better equipped to handle it at a young age, but also when they grow older and are increasingly exposed to those issues in their adult life. A woman called Cynthia Lee, writing for New
Jersey Online, wrote an article titled “Is My Child Old Enough to Watch/Read The Hunger
Games?” She certainly did not agree with Steiner, because she wrote that The Hunger
Games novels “were very well written and wove a wonderfully threaded tale about love,
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important point to make (e.g. on the one hand preparing children for reality and on the other protecting them from unnecessary pain) and those two opposing views illustrate that while dystopian fiction can be a positive method to help ensure a better future, whether on an individual or more global level, it is also a difficult subject matter to some teenagers: they might misinterpret the themes resulting in a loss of their educational potential.
Judging by their popularity and the amount of fanart, fanfiction, online communities, and discussion forums, it can be said that young adult books and movies inspire teenagers to do more than just reading the novels or watching the movies and use it to take action, whether by thinking and talking about the stories or by creating their own fiction or works of art, which is why dystopian fiction is useful as a means in order to educate them about environmental, political, and social issues and perhaps emphasize the importance of preventing disasters like the ones shown in dystopian fiction. However, most of the camps and activities inspired by dystopian novels do nothing to contribute to this positive effect and often fail to mention the themes or issues that are present in the novels at all, while online comments from both teenagers and adults clearly show that dystopian fiction can be difficult to comprehend and can have unforeseen, negative effects. The social effects displayed here ignore an important part of the significance of those literary works and the potential to alert teenagers to contemporary dangers in our own society through dystopian fiction is lost.
Conclusion
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