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The Road And The Hunger Games

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Both novels, The Road and The Hunger Games, share a common theme of survival and violence. In the book, The Road the entire setting and plot illustrate the apparent collapse of all on Earth and the violence of this dystopian world adds to the dreadfulness of survival, as many humans have reverted to terrible behaviors of murder and cannibalism. As well, a discussion of violence in The Hunger Games must consider the role violence plays in the narrative, although the film is about children who are forced to kill each other, the book does not glorify or celebrate violence. Both authors, Cormac McCarthy and Suzanne Collins, use a survival theme to present the hardships Kat Everdeen and the Man and Boy must endure to stay alive; thus, the use …show more content…

Also, after walking past a village, the son claims to have seen a little boy and begs his father if they can go back and get him. The man then says “Stop it. We can’t[,]” (McCarthy 80) and thinks that his son sees things. Again, the selfish desire to survive prevents him from helping others. He does not want to go back because he does not want to do anything that will risk their lives. The thirst for survival becomes greater than his conscience. Hence it prevents him from giving into his son. Another time this occurs is when the man and his son are robbed by a stranger. The man catches him and takes back their stuff, along with the thief’s belongings. The son begs the father to show mercy on the criminal, but the father does not care and so “they set out along the road south with the boy crying and looking back at the nude and slat-like creature standing there… Shivering and hugging himself.” (McCarthy 229).
One of the man’s worst fears is to come across an individual who will harm him or his son. Having that fear flashed before his eyes cause him to show no mercy for any human. He does not care that the thief was left naked and cold, or on the verge of dying. The need to survive can place any individual in this situation where his only goal is to survive and to do so; he will even become a man willing to dismiss another person in need of aid. Also, the man and his son enter many

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