Week One: Hunger Games ≈ Wizard of Oz

Are the two series similar? Hard to believe that the possibility even exists that the two have anything in common. Both have different plots, one focusing on a girl trying to get home to Kansas and the other about a young lady trying not to be killed in a competition.

To be honest, I do not like Hunger Games, the book or the series. While I find the movie actually decent, I couldn’t get through the book. My main issue is the killing of children for the entertainment of others. I don’t like it and can’t really stand to read it.

Despite my aggravation towards the series, I have to admit the hints of similarities between the two exist. It came as a surprise to me to find them at all. Its just not something you would normally compare.

The very first is the sudden thrust into a completely different world that they are unfamiliar with. A world seemingly much better than the one they have known all their life. Both Dorothy and Katniss grew up in areas of poverty, without the comfort of most of the luxuries we have today. It was very dark and bleak visually shown in both movies. Even in the book the Wizard of Oz the color beyond grays is mentioned when Dorothy arrives in Oz. then suddenly they have gain access to the new place filled with color and wonder. And in both cases the wonder hides dark intentions.

As you might have guessed, both girls are trying to survive in this new world they have arrived in. It is unfamiliar to them, strange and mysterious and danger lurks around every corner. They don’t know if a step in the wrong direction will cost or help them. Despite the level of the actual danger differs between both movies, from a single person with an army to a group of individuals, the ladies move through the story surviving against the odds to reach their goal. They have to gain allies and with their help ultimately defeat the enemy. They ability to adapt to the situation ensures their eventual survival.

While these similarities are in the broadest of subjects both play such a key importance that it’s interesting to think of what these two very different characters have in common. If similarities can be found between these two, I wonder what other movies could be compared to one another.