When
considering the dominant themes that exist in both Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the film
adaptation of Suzanne Collin’s best-seller, The
Hunger Games, there are confirmable similarities in the structure and implications
of both works of fiction; the most noticeable being the classic journey of the
protagonist, along which they discover their own sense of identity, societal
worth, self-sufficiency, and the ultimate transformation into “maturity”
(identified more as a characteristic gained by experience rather than age). There
are contrasts between the more aesthetic and idealistic qualities of the
utopian Land of Oz and the dismal, dystopian, and caustic image of the Capitol
of Panem.
The
primary theme in these stories, as is repeated throughout American literature,
is the protagonists’ journey through various obstacles, after which they gain a
sense of maturity and understanding of the world around them. This is the case
for both Dorothy and Katniss Everdeen. As both young women are suddenly thrust
out of their dreary home environments, they are faced with a journey to their
ultimate goal: to be sent back to the familiarity of their home and family. The
stark contrast between the two girls’ odysseys however, is in their reason for
being on their mission to the capital cities of each of their worlds. Dorothy’s
mission to get to The Emerald City is so that she may meet the almighty Wizard
of Oz and he may grant her wish to return home to Kansas (as well as grant the
wishes of the three companions she has made along the way) after she was
dropped into Oz by a tornado. Katniss merely wishes to return to her sister and
mother in District 12 alive so that they will not starve. She is taken to the
Capitol as tribute where she will compete in an arena with her District’s other
tribute, Peeta, against the those of the rival Districts.
Elements
of the Capitol in The Hunger Games
inarguably mirror those of The Emerald City, although they portray a more
despondent, yet almost more believable reality. They both illustrate the
so-called “idealistic” and “sophisticated” life-style of the higher societal
class in both empires. The Capitol is an enormous city in which the most vain
and materialistic masses of people make up the population that watches, fuels,
and sponsors this satirical twist of the mainstream media of today that is the
“Hunger Games,” during which anything less than putting the mortality of its
contestants would not be entertaining enough to be the deciding factor for
which Districts receive food. In contrast, The Emerald City is a glistening
utopia of many mysterious miracles performed by the “Great and Powerful Oz,”
who is exposed by Dorothy to be just an old man behind a curtain. This
uncovering of the mystery of Oz and the realization that her hopes were false
and that the power to save herself, as is true for the Scarecrow, Tinman and
Lion, is what not only shatters the illusions of the childish nature within
Dorothy, but what in retrospect indirectly transforms The Emerald City into
something not so far from the corrupt centralized hierarchy of the Capitol of
Panem. Just as the Districts are suppressed by the control of Panem, the
radiating settlements of Munchkins and various peoples are under the tyranny of
witches.
Until
the arrival of Dorothy to Oz or Katniss to the Capitol, the illusion of
structure and the unquestioned authority of those with higher power, had not
been confronted. Katniss, like Dorothy, consistently questions what others have
not in order to use the value of creating “entertainment” in the Games to
survive. Dorothy is the first to question the power of the Wizard, and
subsequently is faced with the reality that he has no more power than she.
It
is the choice of the viewer in the case of both of these stories, to decide the
relevancy of these girls’ actions to their own times, as well as our own. The
transformation from the despondent gray homes of Dorothy and Katniss, to the
colored capital cities can be interpreted as their own personal enlightenments;
whether or not this is beneficial is debatable, as the goal in the end for both
protagonists is the return home.
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