Document Type

Presentation

Date Created

4-2020

Embargo Date

5-1-2020

Abstract

Art impacts people, not just as individuals but on a larger, societal scale, if enough people are paying attention to it. A boy wizard's adventures leads millions of kids to dream of getting their letter to the wizard school. But only once in a lifetime does a work affect an entire generation to the point of giving them the skills and ideas to light the fire of revolution. Noreena Hertz, in her article for the Guardian, “Think millennials have it tough? For 'Generation K', life is even harsher”, nicknamed kids born from 1995-2012 “Generation K”; “K” for Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of the book/film series, The Hunger Games, doing so because she saw how much Gen Z kids connected with the series, citing many struggles both Katniss and Gen Z kids are facing, from income inequality (and it's relation to race), a distressing amount of mental illness like anxiety and depression, and an increasing amount of distrust in the government. So, for my Research Day project, I decided to look at The Hunger Games series (both the films and novels), what kind of ideas it presents, and its impact on young people when it comes to political action. For my research, I’ll be going through each of the books and films and marking different examples of some of the main struggles that Gen Z people face and some of the revolutionary ideas they hold. I’ll also be looking at the voting and political patterns of Gen Z folks and data on demographics of people who read/watched The Hunger Games, to see if there are any sort of correlations. I believe that by the end of my research, we will see how Suzanne Collins’ novels and subsequent adaptations impacted the current political landscape and the youth of the world.

Abstract Format

html

Comments

This presentation is a finalist for the Undergraduate Humanities, Arts & Creative Endeavors Research Excellence Award

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