The Hunger Games versus...The Hunger Games?

               To start off, I have a funny story about the differences between the movie and the book. Both my younger sister and I had read all the books fairly recently, and I thought it would be nice to see the movie together. Being a nice older brother, I bought tickets and we went to see the movie at a unpopular time so that there would not be a lot of people. We sat in the middle of the theater and just counted the differences from the book. "1: she doesn't say that in the book", "27:her shirt is the wrong color" and on we went back and forth the entire movie till about 50 or so.

               But back to the point, the book  and the movie do differ on some key points, such as how information is presented as a whole, the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, and the relationship between Katniss and Gale.

               The book is written from a stream of consciousness first person perspective. This perspective means we only get information from Katniss's point of view. If she does not think about it, hear it, or see it, we do not know about it. Obviously creating a movie with the same effect would be difficult if not impossible. But the movie takes more liberty than just following Katniss around in third person the entire time. In several instances the movie shows a scene completely unmentioned in the book, such as Seneca Crane with the gamemakers or with President Snow and the reactions of the districts to the Games. This gives a more informed approach to the story, but I feel it takes away from the stress you feel from Katniss in the books. In the movie you can see the big picture, but the book is a personal struggle, both inward and outward.

               The relationship between Katniss and Peeta in the book is much different from on-screen. In the book, Katniss is never really sure if it's an act or if its real. She has no idea whether or not she can trust Peeta. This plays through the entire book. However in the movie, the relationship seems more real. In the cave, it does not seem to be an act of Katniss kissing Peeta. She shows genuine concern for him then, and when they are out foraging.

               The relationship between Katniss and Gale also is played out differently. In the book, Katniss just thinks of Gale while she is trying to survive, but it does not really carry a romantic concept. In the movie, it seems the producer were blatantly going for a love triangle set-up. Whenever we see a development in the Katniss-Peeta relationship, it always has to pan away to Gale looking jealous.