Oh wow…what to make of “The Hunger Games.” That has to be the eeriest feeling I’ve left a movie theatre with in a long time.
The author has created a godless universe. No moral compass, no law higher than The Capital, nothing of transcendent meaning. Just a human gladiator “game” of life and death created by a madman to keep some vestige of order.
Given the huge popularity of this film and novel (even my neighbor’s child has “Hunger Games” posted from her second story window)….what is the draw? There is more than a sick sort of sport that captivates here.
I think this movie poses a question we do well to hear with both ears. In a godless universe, where do you find goodness?
Wildly enough, goodness does appear in this story. Katniss offers to swallow the poison berries and to die with Peeta rather than be forced to kill each other.
In other words…goodness is found in the ancient story of love that sacrifices itself for another. Hmmm….where have you heard that before? Doesn’t it bear a bit of resemblance to the Real God named Jesus who takes on your human flesh and dies for love of you?
My point, really, is that this story of sacrificial-love-that-frees-us-from-death is the Story written at the core of the universe, so inescapably true that even when we try to tell a new story we are always telling the old story because it’s the story we ache to believe is true.
I doubt that Suzanne Collins set out to tell any part of the Gospel Story. But I think she did. Even in a godless universe, there is no other story worth telling except The Story.
Paula
