Dystopian Novels

Examining The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale

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On the surface, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games differs greatly from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. After taking a closer look, however, it is obvious that they have a lot in common. One of the main similarities between these two novels is that they are both set in a dystopian society ruled by an implied totalitarian governmental system. The citizens in both states, Panem and Gilead, are greatly oppressed and controlled by their governments, and the power structure is certainly not in the citizens’ favor. Despite The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale implying that the citizens of Panem and Gilead are ruled over with an iron fist, the inclusion of several governmental weak spots in both novels suggests otherwise and leaves just enough wiggle room for an uprising.

The citizens of Collins’s Panem and Atwood’s Gilead both faced major oppression in terms of what they could or could not do. Panem is split into twelve Districts in which they compete against each other for food and other resources; the districts are at the complete mercy of the Capitol, and anyone who dares to speak out against their rulings is severely punished. Each year, a male and a female tribute is selected from each district to participate in the Hunger Games, a battle royale in which only one tribute comes out alive. The…