Monday, April 16, 2012

Suburbs of Our Discontent

The Hunger Games-Inspired Composition Lesson



This came to me while I was thinking about the "yes, but . . " writing concept I teach my students. In brief, it's another way of explaining how and why to take counter-arguments into consideration. One of reasons why counter-arguments are so important, I tell them, is because it gives you an opportunity to show that you can see things from other people's point of view. In other words, showing kindness to others, even those you mean to fight, is a great strategy of winning friends and influencing people.

I can't remember whether Haymitch says this in the book and/or in the movie, but I just thought about his (ironic!) advice to Katniss that she should get people to like her if she wants to survive. And he is so right about that! That's a mini composition lesson right there. Or, seen the other way, it's an example of how my composition lessons are also relevant for hard-core survival situations.

Could I love The Hunger Games any more? Is it even possible?

No comments:

Post a Comment