The Hunger Games

Many avid readers find that when their favorite books are turned into movies the movie does not show the book’s full depth and all of the details that make it great.  Fans have watched the Harry Potter and Twilight movies with devotion whether or not they were completely accurate.  But when movies like Eragon hit theaters, they disappointed fans everywhere.  The problem with the Hunger Games was that the book was so different from any other book out there that I was worried that the movie would not do it justice.  The Hunger Games is a story about a girl named Katniss who has to fight to the death in the Hunger Games with 23 other tributes from the other districts in order to save her sister, supply her district with food for a year, and save her own life.  That is such an oversimplification of the book that to truly understand what’s going on you would have to read the book.  However, I believe the movie did an excellent job of bringing the story to life.  It included most of the details which did not anger fans.  In the box office, it even did better than Twilight, which is always a plus.  The movie makers really did an excellent job with adapting the film.  In the book, Katniss thought a lot and most of the main story was in her head which could have been a problem for the filmmakers but they did an amazing job with including the details that were only in her head on the screen.  No meaning was lost.  Overall, with all of the action and suspense, I would say that this movie is for everyone.  I certainly enjoyed watching and I would recommend this movie as one of the best book adaptations to date.

Kids, Guns, and Television

The author of this picture very strategically placed every image within the picture entitled Kids, Guns, and Television.  A child is in front to start the viewer off with a heightened sense of compassion.  The child grabs the viewer’s attention and makes the viewer curious to find out what the rest of the image has to do with the child.  The child’s stance also indicates that he is looking at you with disapproval.  His head is cocked and his arms are crossed.  Also, he is not smiling like one would assume from a child in a picture.  The next biggest image in the picture is the gun within the T.V.  The gun is actually pointing at the child’s head which could make the viewer upset or angry depending on their view of guns.  The gun is placed within the T.V. to show how much violence there now is in television programs.  Everyone knows this is the ways things are nowadays but no one seems to care.  The author obviously cares about the violence and is trying to speak to the world through picture.  He further indicates that violence in television has a negative influence by his choice of background.  He puts the phrase “the tv made me do it” behind the other images so that is the last thing someone would see.  It leaves a strong message.  The violence in T.V. shows has a direct effect on children.  They are influenced by what they see and are tempted to try it even if it is morally wrong.  They see the guns and shooting and think that because it was on T.V. that it is a perfectly acceptable way to control life.  They were raised the way society wanted them to be raised and that could be potentially harmful or even life threatening.  The gun is aimed at the child to suggest that we are killing our children by showing them these shows that promote violence and guns because they will look at that and think it’s the way real life is supposed to be.