History Literature / TheHungerGames

** The real star-crossed lovers of the series turns out to be [[spoiler:Finnick and Annie. With him being the Capitol's Golden Boy and she being very unstable mentally there was no way they could get to officially be together, until the rebellion. Snow obviously knows about their love affair since he has Annie captured to get back at Finnick for being part of LaResistance. In the third book they are reunited and get married but only have a brief time together before Finnick dies.]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: All of the Victors have some form of poorly represented PTSD. Katniss, having been put through two sets of Games, [[spoiler:as well as threats from the government and being manipulated by her own allies]], has among the worst. Annie became a wreck [[spoiler:after seeing her ally being decapitated]].

* ShadowArchetype: Haymitch and Katniss: Two abrasive survivalists who withdraw into themselves to cope with the harshness of their lives. Part of the reason they never really get along is that they're too alike. Haymitch is Katniss thirty years later, after mentoring sixty-odd children to their deaths.

* PublicityStuntRelationship: The glamour-obsessed Capitol treats the contestants of the titular [[DeadlyGame battle royale]] as celebrities, giving them a full media blitz before they all brutally kill each other. The two contestants of District 12, Katniss and Peeta, are encouraged by their handler Haymitch to play up a romance between them, as it will draw viewers and sponsor gifts that will give them greater chances at surviving the Game. Katniss is reluctant to do so but reneges when more displays of affection give them better gifts and even a rare rules change to allow surviving co-champions. [[spoiler:The "co-champions" offer to turns out to be a lie, but Peeta and Katniss force the Game's hand by attempting to commit suicide together. Afterward, they realize their act of defiance made them a target of the government, so they have to keep up the act of a couple after the Game in an attempt to seem like they were just lovestruck teenagers too emotional to want to live without each other.]]

* PromotionToParent: This is what drove Katniss and Gale together before the beginning of the series. Both of their dads died several years before in a mining accident and as the oldest children, had to step up and help their mothers. Mrs Everdeen fell into a deep depression when her husband died and was unable to provide emotionally or financially for her children, so Katniss had to become the breadwinner and be both the mother as father figure to Prim. Gale's mother Hazelle helps financially as much as she could, but has three other children to raise and only just makes do washing clothes. Gale's siblings, from what little we see of them, also see him as their father figure. The two of them began to help each other out by splitting the workload.

** Some participants in the Third Quarter Quell in ''Catching Fire'' presumably '''used''' to be {{Action Girl}}s or Guys when they were younger (such as Mags, who, as a Career tribute, was probably a good fighter), but have gotten so much older and more out of shape now that they've become this.

* TheLoad: Peeta is a surprisingly competent survivor in the Games, but after the rules are changed to make Katniss seek him out and and ally with him, by the time she finds him he's already so badly injured and sick that he's completely helpless and for most of the rest of the Games Katniss is mainly focused on trying to keep him alive.

** For his part, Snow claims he is simply trying to protect the country by threatening and harming Katniss and the people around her, but Katniss suspects he has some personal investment in it. The prequel shows she is correct, that Snow has a personal disdain for many things Katniss is associated with and stands for, including (but not limited to) the districts, District 12 in particular, rebels, and music. ''The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'' reveals [[spoiler:he was a mentor to a vocally-talented tribute from District 12 during the 10th Hunger Games and helped her won. He even ''fell in love'' with her, and vice versa. However, a series of events caused their relationship to sour suddenly, as she discovered what person he really is and him attempting to murder her in turn. The possibility that she was Katniss' ancestor just adds to the grudge, because after they drifted apart Snow had worked all his life to forget that the girl used to be a part of his life]].

* IdealistVsPragmatist: Katniss frequently opposes some of the most ruthless traps devised by Gale such as one targeting medics caring for wounded soldiers or one threatening the targets' ''[[WouldHurtAChild children]]'', along with initiatives such as burying alive the Nut of District 12, even though there were innocent civilians inside. This attitude is best shown by the following exchange:

* CripplingOverSpecialization: Career tributes are bred and trained for actual combat, which is why they have a disproportionate number of victories. However, they're from the wealthier districts that don't have to use basic survival skills very often, if at all, and thus they tend to be dependent on the supplies from the Cornucopia. [[spoiler:Naturally, Katniss decides to use this fact to her advantage and takes the supplies out of the picture when she gets the chance.]]

[[caption-width-right:259:[-[[RuleOfSymbolism It's just a bird,]] [[BlatantLies nothing more.]]-] ]]

* SlidingScaleOfGenderEquality: For all its faults, Panem is pretty gender-equal. You never see anyone bragging about being one gender over another, or putting anyone down for belonging to a gender. It is implied that there are still conventional gender roles in romance, such as the guy being expected to get down on one knee and propose, but other than that, nothing.

* EvilLawyerJoke: Lawyers are mocked several times. At one point, Captain Duellos mentions to Geary that he has pirates in his ancestry and Geary confides that he has ''lawyers'' in his. One captain comments that there are fates too horrible even for lawyers, and explains that his brother is a lawyer. Duellos offers condolences.

* DebateAndSwitch: In the first book, Katniss' major moral dilemma is whether she can kill equally innocent children in order to survive and come home to Prim and Gale. Yet, she never has to face this dilemma. She [[spoiler:only ever kills Careers, who are treated as AcceptableTargets]], and even then none of these kills are calculated or cold-blooded. [[spoiler:Katniss drops the tracker-jackers on the Careers, because they are hunting her, which ends up killing Glimmer. She shoots Marvel, but as a quick reflex after Marvel kills Rue, and later kills Cato as a MercyKill.]] Katniss worries about having to kill Rue, [[spoiler:but then Marvel kills Rue,]] Foxface, [[spoiler:but then Foxface [[AccidentalMurder mistakenly eats the nightlock berries]]]], and Thresh after he saves Katniss' life [[spoiler:but then Cato kills Thresh]]. The end finally subverts this when the Gamemakers renege on their offer to let two members from the same district live, and Katniss must either kill Peeta or be killed. But then Katniss [[TakeAThirdOption Takes A Third Option]] by [[spoiler:suggesting they both eat nightlock berries together]]. This is then [[DoubleSubversion doubly subverted]], because [[spoiler:the Gamemakers blink and let both Katniss and Peeta live]], meaning Katniss never has to address the dilemma of killing an innocent to save her own life.

* PromotionToParent: This is what drove Katniss and Gale together before the beginning of the series. Both of their dads died several years before in a mining accident and as the oldest children, had to step up and help their mothers. Mrs Everdeen fell into a deep depression when her husband died and was unable to provide emotionally or financial for her children, so Katniss had to become the breadwinner and be both the mother as father figure to Prim. Gale's mother Hazelle helps financially as much as she could, but has three other children to raise and only just makes do washing clothes. Gale's siblings, from what little we see of them, also see him as their father figure. The two of them began to help each other out by splitting the workload.

** The Capitol and District 2 use Greek and Roman names to highlight their decadent nature and fondness for gladitorial combat -- Seneca, Coriolanus, Cato, Effie (for Euphemia), Brutus, Cressida, Messala, Castor and Pollux. and so on. The nation itself is called Panem, the Latin word for bread.

* WeatherControlMachine: The gamemakers can control the environment inside the arena, from weather to whether it's night or day.

** This gets especially obvious in ''Mockingjay'', since [[spoiler:the Capitol commits all sorts of war crimes, and some of the rebels are willing to stoop to their level (either for the greater good of defeating the Capitol and/or for revenge). The final straw that convinces Katniss that the Capitol and District 13 are not really different is when she witnesses what is probably a FalseFlagOperation targeting children and medics (including her little sister) using a bombing tactic that Gale had thought up, followed closely by District 13's President offering a vote to have their ''own'' Hunger Games. To make it even grayer, Katniss herself votes yes on the Capitol Hunger Games, and President Snow tells Katniss that while he's not above killing children, he would ''never'' have pulled the stunt that had just killed Prim, and they both know he's not lying.]]

* FirstKiss: Katniss has hers with Peeta. She notes that it probably should be a significant moment, but since it's a stunt she pulls on live television to try and save both their lives, all she feels is that his lips are very warm, because he has a fever.

** In the first book: Clove uses throwing knives, Glimmer and Katniss use a bow, and Rue uses a [[BratsWithSlingshots slingshot]], while Cato uses a [[CoolSword sword]], Marvel uses a [[BladeOnAStick spear]], Thresh uses [[GoodOldFisticuffs brute force]], and Peeta uses a combat knife and is noted to be strong enough that he ''could'' just use brute force as well.

** The Games themselves are rather reminiscent of American school shootings.

* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay'' (2014 & 2015): A two-part adaptation of ''Mockingjay''.