The Hunger Games is a trilogy written by American author Suzanne Collins. It includes The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The books have been adapted to four movies, The hunger games which plays out the 74th Hunger games, Catching Fire with the 75th Hunger games (A Quarter Quell that happens every 25 years) the Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2 (not released in theaters yet)

         In several interviews Collins stated that she did not include any aspects of Religion in her work, and that is very evident. However as a Roman Catholic herself, Collins still carried the values and beliefs of Christianity in her work and this is where I come in to help identify those aspects that relate to both The Hunger Games and Christianity.

           The books are written as a narrative from the main protagonist Katniss Everdeen who lives in District 12, in a dystopian universe in the nation of Panem with 12 districts in critical varying states of poverty. A long time ago the districts had an uprising against their oppressor the Capitol and lost. “In penance for their uprising, each District shall offer up a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public Reaping. These tributes shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol. And then transferred to the public arena where they will fight to death until a lone victor remains”

             According to Collins, a great influence for this work comes from the ‘Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The myth tells how in punishment for past deeds, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown in the Labyrinth and devoured by the monstrous Minotaur. The Roman gladiator games also had a strong influence, which entails a ruthless government forcing people to fight to the death as popular entertainment’. It is from these myths that I have a basis to argue Collins claims that there is no religion in her work.

             The religious interpretation of the myth is that it looks like world we live in today, with its unending traps, several pitfalls, wrong turnings and blind alleys, and it is the world through which Christ has revealed the pathway to salvation.

                It should also be emphasised that it was during the rule of the Roman Empire that brutality and persecution of Christians led to the entertainment in the Roman gladiator games. It was the horrors of the dominant oppressive authority in Rome that fuelled the enduring zeal of early Christians to endure and latter grew into a religion we know today as Christianity.