ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: “It’s Like the Bread. How I Never Get Over Owing You for That.” ix
Introduction: Let The Hunger Games and Philosophy Begin! 1
PART ONE “HAVING AN EYE FOR BEAUTY ISN’T NECESSARILY A WEAKNESS”: THE ART OF RESISTING THE CAPITOL
1. “The Final Word on Entertainment”: Mimetic and Monstrous Art in the Hunger Games 8
Brian McDonald
2. “Somewhere between Hair Ribbons and Rainbows”: How Even the Shortest Song Can Change the World 26
Anne Torkelson
3. “I Will Be Your Mockingjay”: The Power and Paradox of Metaphor in the Hunger Games Trilogy 41
Jill Olthouse
PART TWO “WE’RE FICKLE, STUPID BEINGS”: HUNGERING FOR MORALITY IN AN IMMORAL WORLD
4. “The Odds Have Not Been Very Dependable of Late”: Morality and Luck in the Hunger Games Trilogy 56
George A. Dunn
5. The Joy of Watching Others Suffer: Schadenfreude and the Hunger Games 75
Andrew Shaffer
6. “So Here I Am in His Debt Again”: Katniss, Gifts, and Invisible Strings 90
Jennifer Culver
PART THREE “I AM AS RADIANT AS THE SUN”: THE NATURAL, THE UNNATURAL, AND NOT-SO-WEIRD SCIENCE
7. Competition and Kindness: The Darwinian World of the Hunger Games 104
Abigail Mann
8. “No Mutt Is Good”—Really? Creating Interspecies Chimeras 121
Jason T. Eberl
PART FOUR “PEETA BAKES. I HUNT.”: WHAT KATNISS CAN TEACH US ABOUT LOVE, CARING, AND GENDER
9. Why Katniss Chooses Peeta: Looking at Love through a Stoic Lens 134
Abigail E. Myers
10. “She Has No Idea. The Effect She Can Have.”: Katniss and the Politics of Gender 145
Jessica Miller
11. Sometimes the World Is Hungry for People Who Care: Katniss and the Feminist Care Ethic 162
Lindsey Issow Averill
PART FIVE “AS LONG AS YOU CAN FIND YOURSELF, YOU’LL NEVER STARVE”: HOW TO BE YOURSELF WHEN IT’S ALL A BIG SHOW
12. Why