Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!"

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Introduction

Everyone has a story. Some stories express strength and courage while others focus on death and defeat. Regardless of the direction, everyone still has a tale to tell. Stories allow people to communicate feelings, express expected behaviors, share memories, or provide a source of entertainment. This broad application of storytelling is what drew me to the seminar, "Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life." Today, stories provide a form of amusement using fictional wizard worlds, friendly vampires, and outer space adventures to captivate people. However, that does not prevent authors from communicating spiritual, political, or inspirational ideology through their stories. Due to this, authors allow the readers to take leisurely reading to another level. This seminar takes pleasure reading to an academic level. This unit should fuel or ignite a desire for reading that is not purely for entertainment. Through the use of this unit students will be provided with an opportunity to analyze fundamental civic and economic concepts through the use of contemporary fictional work.

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games takes place in a society plagued with varying forms of dystopia where the government is the Alpha and the Omega. Thus, the question that may be forming, "Why select The Hunger Games, an odd choice, to teach and explore American democratic principles?" This "dystopian story," ¹ as Collins refers to it, captivates readers and presses upon them to reflect on their own moral values and role in society through history, political science, and sociological exploration, to confront the uncertainty of their own democratic future. ² Collins is able to connect the reader to core civic and economic concepts by exposing the vulnerability of democratic values through themes of power, citizenship, media influence, and politics.

Works of fiction such as The Hunger Games should not be overlooked for academic use due to their science fiction content or mainstream popularity. These magical stories are applicable to contemporary dystopian situations and provide opportunities to discover solutions. ³ Adolescents and young adults across the globe have stood in the gap to rebel against tyranny. In the United States, citizens staged lunch counter sit-ins to gain racial equality. In the Middle East, individuals participated in protests to gain democratic rights. In Egypt, young adults used social media to demand political freedom. It is the duty of an educator to think outside the box to reach students where they are and raise them to a higher level of thinking. This interdisciplinary alliance shapes a society of individuals that value their contribution to the common good. For this purpose I have chosen to reach beyond the confines of the social studies genre, to be a better educator and provide my students with a memorable and effective learning experience.