Why We Love Young Adult Dystopian Novels and Movies, the question should be why wouldn't we? Because young people love reading about young people, because young people are irational and emotional, and because we live in a world that is too boring and our daily life becomes mundane and repetitive. We seek pleasure in fictional literature and movies, where our hopes and dreams could be achieved by other characters. Ironic.
I'd always imagined that I lived in a dystopian world, how exciting that would be!
You, my friend, may want to know what's a dystopian world.Simply pick up a book, or go see a movie, and you might bump into one. Hunger Games, Divergent Trilogies, The Maze Runner, etc, all have young adults as lead characters.
Just like Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games, she lives in a future autocratic nation and is forced in a cruel kill-or-to-be-killed game, later is forced to lead a revolution. She didn't have a choice to live a normal life, she had to fight for her sister's life and her life and her people's because they didn't even have that free-will, and that somehow makes us admire her -- because she has to stand up.
(Katniss, the archery girl)
The game is fun to watch, but I didn't want to experience what Katniss went through, it's half luck half whatever archery she learned while shooting squirrels (hah!). Maybe her sympathy for Rue, and for all suffering people.
And Tris Prior in Divergent Series, who has to choose a faction (Duntless, the warrior faction) when she's coming of age and devotes to that faction for the rest of life, only to find out Erudites (the wisdom faction) plotted to wage a war on her originate faction Abnegation (the selfless faction) where her parents remain.
(Tris trained as a Duntless solder)
She lives in a world where humanity had been damaged by gene modification, and for survival, founders of the society categorized people into five factions, Abnegation (people who are selfless and run the government), Duntless, Erudites, Candor (people who always tell truth to each other even when they don't want to) and Amity (people who loves farming and always happy), and there's those who don't fit into five factions called factionless, they are like beggars of future world. The faction system is designed for people to conform and contribute to the society instead of destroying each other. Tris is one of the rare called Divergent, which means she has the trait of more than one faction, she's smart like erudite, selfless like abnegation, and brave like duntless in the choosing ceremony to find out where she belongs in this society. She doesn't think like other people, actually she thinks like a normal people (cause these people are damaged and they are incapable of thinking like a normal human), and has other privileges like awareness under serums.
She's just 16 (Young Adult, yay!) when she began the biggest choosing of her life, she screwed up her test (found out she's a divergent and she had to keep it a secret without knowing why), she knew she doesn't belong in Abnegation and she wants more, there's must be something more exciting than helping factionless (beggars, duh...)? Her eyes brightened when she saw Duntless running across the street, climbing up and jumping down, and that attracts me too! Duntless is the absolutely cool kids everyone wants to be with! The story is good because it resonates with the little girl inside me (we were girls), we don't like our life, we want to follow our inner desire and be strong. The movie is even better with plenty of scenes of Tris's Duntless becoming training, to watch her grow up stronger each day and fight so hard to rise from bottom to top makes me want to do the same. Everybody loves Cinderella, Tris's just another version of Cinderella, only the warrior Cinderella. We are powerful females!
The difference between Tris and Katniss is, Katniss is forced into fighting, rebellion against government, she didn't want it, she didn't know it before she's rescued by District 13 and she sure did not like being poster girl , the mocking jay for the rebellion. When rebels fought, what did she do? She shot poster films, all propoganda and stuff. I mean propaganda is really important, it's all about winning hearts, again, it's not heroine! Katniss remains true to Katniss, she's a big sister who's eager to protect her sibling, she's a survior in the hunger game, she's not a leader even when others look up to her, she just do what she wants! That's awesome! Tris, we can say she is forced to fight, too. But she is a true fighter, she transformed herself from a weak young teenage girl into a warrior (thanks to Duntless training and that is not easy to pass).
About their relationships, I really don't understand why Katniss loves Peeta, out of sympathy? I am totally up for Tris and Four, their love is a growing one, they fought against enemies and they stay true to each other.
BTW, Hunger Games the last movie sucks...it gives absolutely nothing we want.
I am looking forward to Divergent Series, the Allegiant first part.The trailer is out.
