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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5497
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The disconnection you point to is vital to the initial volume of the trilogy. The Hunger Games are a satirical device, the oppressive Panem actually come from the desire to frame a story around a satirical look at reality television Collins says as much in the interview printed in the tail of volume one in the edition I have.

This does leave a problem when we go from satirical statement to epic adventure. As the story continues the wheels start to come off the premise in various ways. The core of the story is rotten because it really doesn't make any sense. The key clue to this is that Snow's only tactic is to manipulate the Games, he has no other military plan to contain unrest in the districts. The actual concept of the games is riddled with problems if you think about them too hard. The plan was originally that at the outset the holes would be covered by the presumed virtue of the topic.

Collins has some really nice characterization going off, and knows how to craft symbols and dramatic moments. It's a testament to her skills that many of these symbols, moments and characters remain engaging and resonant even when it is obvious that the main story is rather silly. As the epic winds to its conclusion the Hunger Games become more of a problem to the new, weaker story.

I always find it interesting when an author sub-consciously rejects the set up of their story by choosing to kill almost everyone at the very end of the story. I could be wrong but I always think that such an action expresses a dissatisfaction the author has with the shortcomings of their own work.

Dramatically the oppression of the Districts exists to serve the Hunger Games, that is why the Capitol has a very limited play book when proper unrest comes out of their key initiative for oppression and control.

All it really would have taken to strengthen the story would be to evolve and consider the Capitol as if it really existed, instead of as a large piece of set decoration surrounding the Games. If the Capitol had been fleshed out to be far more insidious and evil it would have given more liberation for the Games to be the fostering ground of a revolution.

If the Games were like a special event in among a calendar of "Circuses" (as in Bread and Circuses) the whole televised game industry could be seen as the bedrock of Panem's aspirational society. Gladiatorial combat for adults a la Death Race and Gamer could be seen as the way out of the life of a drudge. The kick back is that people in the Districts could be against the Hunger Games but for the Games in general, allowing the question of how far is too far.

Of course this makes the satire far deeper and more complex in turn and is far harder to stage manage.

But don't be fooled. All things in the books exist to fuel some form of organised combat in books one and two the pantomimic President Snow is the manipulator and the combat is in the form of the arena ritual, in the final volume President Coin is the manipulator and the combat is a real warzone. Only the capitol's "pods" exist to inject that grim gallows jollity that leads Katniss to explicitly dub the climactic military mission as just another stage in the Hunger Games.

None of it particularly holds up to close examination purely because the Games have far more weight than the oppressive ruling class strand. If they were held in an equilbrium of attention and story weight it would have dramatically altered the character of the story and made the whole thing more robust and less prey to the weaknesses described.

Original score: 3