Where is God in The Hunger Games?

I know it's been a hype for a long time now. I saw the trailer when I was about to watch Sherlock Holmes in December last year. I thought it was interesting to watch. The Hunger Games. But I never had a chance to watch it in the cinema when it came out in Malaysia. Then I realized they made the movie out of the book written by Suzanne Collins.

One of my students was reading that book in the class... which of course, I reprimanded coz she's been so engrossed with the book and slowed down her work goals in the process. I told her she could read but only after class.

Funny because she told me, you also must read, teacher. You will be happy if you do. She said she watched the movie after reading the book but it's nothing like reading it first coz they removed a lot of scenes and changed some, too.

And so I said yes and she gave me the book to read.

It took me awhile to start coz I was too busy with work.


Then when I was a bit more free, I started flipping the pages. It's so beautiful I never asked for spoilers when reading a book before. But I did ask my students who have watched the movie and who have read the book. They never told me what happened to Peeta.

And so while enjoying my read, I started finding God in The Hunger Games. I am not too sure if I personalized things so much these days... but I did just that.

The book opened with Katniss and Gale into it. I wanted so much to write the summary of the Hunger Games book but I guess you can read it everywhere in the internet. So I will just talk about how I feel while reading it.

Panem, the country they were at, used to be North America - you should really read the book so you know what happened and why they have to do the Hunger Games.

Katniss apparently volunteered when her sister Prim was chosen to participate in the Hunger Games. Each district should have 1 boy and 1 girl representatives. The boy that was picked was a baker's son named Peeta.

I tell you, I could relate the boy's sacrifice for Katniss' safety in Jesus. He was willing to lay down his life because of his love for the girl. There's just a lot of things the boy did while in the arena for the Hunger Games to save her life. And remember, he is a baker's son.

Back to the story where they were still young, when Katniss' father died at the coal mine explosion and Katniss stood up to be the breadwinner for her mother and sister coz her mother withdrew from them when her father died, Katniss almost lost hope when this boy, Peeta, threw bread in her direction for her to eat.

I thought it was a symbol of Jesus giving us bread... a hope, a life. Katniss was almost dying with hunger and hopelessness then... but after the bread incident, it gave her much hope and life.

I still dunno the significance of the dandelion everytime Katniss comes in contact with Peeta. It's probably in the second book.

But Peeta truly symbolizes humility, sacrificial and loving unconditionally in the story.

I finished reading the book last night, -no, this morning at 2am- and truly, I am glad I read the book.

What about you? Have you found Jesus in the Hunger Games?

Now I am ready to watch the movie, no matter how they did it.

Catching Fire is on queue now. Will read it on the weekend.