The Subversive Message of The Hunger Games

Where we are often willing to pretend that war is a game with invisible consequences, The Hunger Games invites us to pay attention to what it means to ask our young to take up arms and fight others to the death. The film does not glorify violence but rather challenges us to see it for what it really is and to ask if there might not be another way (spoiler alert: our young protagonists in fact do choose another way at the end of the games, refusing to participate in a final act of violent murder). Young Christian fans viewing the film may just pick up on this message that subverts our own culture of war and massive military power. They may even ask themselves, much as Peeta does, if we might be able to respond to violence in a way that does not change us but rather allows to remain true to our identity as followers of Christ's subversive way of creative non-violent resistance.