Symbols, Imagery, Allegory
As we learn from the novel's first chapter, the country of Panem is located in what once was North America. In the middle sits the Capitol, a center of wealth and affluence which organizes the year...
Setting
PanemPanem is the name of the country where Katniss lives with her family, a country that – after a series of vague disasters – rose from the ashes of North America. Droughts, storms, fires, wa...
Genre
Dystopian LiteratureSuzanne Collins's The Hunger Games imagines a world that is a total nightmare of a place, the opposite of a utopia. The totalitarian government of Panem has complete control of...
What's Up With the Title?
Attention, Students:Today's Shmoop lesson is about the literal and the figurative. Ready? Here we go.What are the Hunger Games literally? Well, to think literally means to think of a word's exact...
What's Up With the Ending?
Cliffhanger alert! Cliffhanger alert!The Hunger Games ends with Katniss and Peeta stepping out of the train onto the platform in District 12. They've just won the Hunger Games, but in order to avoi...