An article recently published by The Guardian titled Hunger Games credited with making archery cool gives me a lot of mixed feelings. The article talks about how The Hunger Games has sparked an interest in archery, and therefore the current Olympic games.
I can agree that The Hunger Games/Katniss has made archery a lot cooler than it used to be. I don’t actually recall a time after my seventh grade gym class when we learned archery that I even gave it a second thought until I read The Hunger Games. With that being said, I don’t think The Hunger Games has very much to do with the popularity of the Olympics at all. I know with a lot of certainty that all of my friends who are watching and enjoying the Olympics are doing so because of pride for their country and/or sport.
We are living in a time that consists of war, debt, and poverty…who wouldn’t want to forget about that for two weeks and cheer on their country? I find that sometimes it’s a little hard for me express my pride for my country when I know that there are so many problems going on, so watching the Olympics gives me a chance to push all of that to the side and see people come together from all over the world to play some games.
Although I do think that Katniss is awesome and raised a lot of awareness for archery, I do not think it’s fair to assume the appeal of the Olympics is caused by a book when it appeals to so many people for much different reasons.
