Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The humble journal plays an important role in The Hunger Games trilogy. It can plan an important role in anyone’s life.

I just finished reading “The Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I did so to try to come closer to the young adult crowd that bought these books, made them best sellers, and are currently making the first movie a huge hit.

I won’t spoil the suspense of the story. I will make note of the role of the journal in the emotional well being of several of the major characters. There are two journals in the story:

(1) the journal containing records of plant and animal life that helped sustain the family of the main character

(2) the journal written at the end of the trilogy about all the characters large and small in the story

The first journal kept people alive physically. It noted what plants and animals could be eaten to survive. It also noted what plants could be used as medicine.

The second journal healed the story’s survivors emotionally. It helped them remember the people they knew, what these people did, and what these people meant in their lives.

The book trilogy is just a story like all stories of fiction. The journal, however, can be real. There are many benefits of a journal. Sure, the second journal in the trilogy could have been done on a computer, but the author had the characters write the journal by hand on pieces of paper.

There is something about dragging a pen across paper that is good for the heart of mankind.