can't say I loved Hunger Games ...I was not far into it when I was reminded of a movie that I saw at school in 3rd or 4th grade ...We were in Los Angeles ... would have been 70 or 71 ...times were weird there to say the least ...especially to a child fresh out of the woods of Alaska where bears were less scary than some of the people we ran into
the movie was The Lottery from a short story by Shirley Jackson and I don‘t think it was more than an half hour long …it was only one reel of film and not a real big reel (remember the good old days of school movies on reels and the flip flip noise of the projector) ... can't remember all the details as it has been a few (many
) years ago but for whatever reason a lottery is held to insure good crops ..it is a small town and a family is picked in the first draw as “the family†and then in the family draw a person is chosen as the winner or rather loser …this person is stoned to death and in the movie it is a woman ...last scene shows her crying saying it isn’t fair and then her son’s back and someone putting a rock in his hand ...leading up to the stoning the kids are the ones that have to gather the stones for the actual stoning
I cannot tell you how long I had nightmares from this movie ... it was shown to us after talks about birth control and drugs and right after we had a city wide vote allowing girls to wear pants to school ... up until then we were required to wear dresses or skirts ... not sure how it came about that we would be shown the movie but to me it was an inappropriate film for 3rd and 4th graders …one teacher told us that it was to show us what could happen if we were “Bad Girls†and had babies … I was a naïve child and didn‘t know what she was talking about …and even though it was a very crazy time in the area I bet most of my classmates didn‘t know what she was talking about either …I think it was too young to be talking birth control to us at school but the birth control pill was new and big news … and why were us girls singled out??? …why didn‘t she say this is what could be in our future if we were bad girls and boys
... I was at Limerick Elementary in Canoga Park ...
Hunger Games left me with the same feeling …is this appropriate for young readers where there is already so much violence in our society ???…my sons were at Richland School in Lynnville TN when Jamie Rouse came in one morning killing a student and a teacher and wounding another teacher …last fall we had two boys in this county that went in and killed a mom and her 2 sons over the woman’s oldest son dating one of the killers ex girl friends … I know a book , or song or movie is not going to be the total cause of a child going out and carrying out an act of murder but feel it can contribute … after we were shown The Lottery we had a few weeks of more playground fights …many involving rock throwing …
The tone of the book through the main character is that she thinks that the Games are wrong but she does what she has to do to survive … then you have the Gamers (my renaming ) or those in control who seem to think that this is good recreation and that they have the right to continuing punishing those who they want to keep down so they don’t move down on the social totem pole … they are above most people and use the games like a big board game … but the game pieces are living beings who feel pain and die … and then in comes the question of government control …
The hunger Game series are not books I would normally read and not sure I want my kids reading them … another that falls into this category is one my girls have read at school and scared my youngest who will be a 6th grader this fall is Lois Lowery’s The Giver … as they were reading it (assigned) and I read along , I was remembering The Lottery and the fear it instilled in my little brain …The Giver was read in 4th grade and is being re-read in 7th grade now since the language arts teacher for 7th and 8th grade , read and loved the book …
I am not for censorship in school reading , but maybe caution would be the best word … and I think that on controversial books that parents should be able to say I don’t want my child reading this … but I also realize that little Johnny who can’t read it because Mom said NO will borrow Fred’s copy and read it anyway … not all kids but most would go this route …this according to county wide survey of 6th through 12 graders in the county … and I am sure that nation wide similar results would prevail
as someone said … the books are thought provoking … I want to read the 3rd to see how it all ends or if things are turned around … will government be over thrown and a kinder gentler time period follow ?? We will have to wait until August to find out
