
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and The Hunger Games (2012) are both stories about the survival and strength of individual young adult characters. Each movie depicts a young adult in their journey for redemption. Harry Potter is a classic tale about the fight between good and evil, while The Hunger Games is a modern tale on a dystopian post-apocalyptic future. Although both texts are fictional, I argue that the story told from The Hunger Games resonates with American audiences through its commentary on social issues and purposeful use of style and setting as compared to Harry Potter’s fantastical world of fighting evil. 

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry is sent off to his aunt’s family from his mother’s side as an infant. He had to live with his adopted family, the Dudley’s, not knowing his parents were wizards, and that he was a wizard too. He knew nothing about magic, spells, and his past. He grows up, living in a cupboard underneath the stairs, with his awful adopted family. He’s treated as the runt of the family, doing all the chores, while his cousin was spoiled and given anything he wanted. Harry always knew he was different from the other children, he could talk to snakes, and a scene in the movie shows he used his mind to make the glass of an animal exhibit disappear. Days later, owls are flying around Harry’s house and they start dropping down letters of his acceptance into Hogwarts. His aunt and uncle are against the idea of Harry attending Hogwarts, so his uncle moves the family to an isolated house on a very small piece of land in the middle of the ocean. On the day of Harry’s birthday, a hybrid giant, Hagrid, delivers Harry’s acceptance letter to the school of wizarding magic. Along with that, Hagrid delivered important information to Harry, revealing to him who his parents were and the shocking news that he is a wizard too. It is this scene where Harry is given the choice between staying in his normal “muggle” world or leaving it for the magic world. Later on, Harry finds even more dark stories about his past. This leads to him having a face off with the primary antagonist of the story. Harry wins his first encounter with the antagonist, but the antagonist escapes in order to continue the story.

The Hunger Games is a story about a dystopian post-apocalyptic future. In this future, the country has turned into a nation called “Panem.” The movie does not reference whether it is or is not the remains of the United States. However, Panem is the result of war and destruction. This is elaborated by the people within the Capitol throughout the movie. In order to maintain the “peace” and “stability” in the nation, a yearly performance of a fight to the death, titled “The Hunger Games,” must be had. Panem has a total of twelve districts, all of which must send two tributes to fight for their district. In this story’s plot, the main character is a young adult woman, Katniss. She appears from one of the lower ranking districts and volunteers herself in order to save her sister who was chosen to be in The Hunger Games. Once reaching the arena, Katniss defeats the rest of the player and eventually wins the game. However, she becomes the first winner to ever decide against killing her last opponent.

In both movies, the main character is given the opportunity to decide his or her fate. And in both cases, the main character decides to challenge their fate. It is this storyline that is most similar to classic examples of literature, as a story of struggle and hardships creates a better relationship between it and the audience. It is also here where both texts share a common theme. Both texts allow the main character choice and both texts involve great hardships and challengers who come from difficult places. Additionally, each of the movies feature fictional storylines that has yet to happen in reality. Aside, from the obvious fact that never has there been or will be wizardry in reality; we are far from a world where districts will have to send “tributes” to sacrifice their lives in order for us to live. Both stories illustrate a fantastical setting. 

Although, Harry Potter’s setting is in the twenty-first century it is far more unbelievable than The Hunger Games. Harry Potter’s setting includes characters that are seemingly more like our reality today and yet I find it more believable to imagine a world where The Hunger Games is true rather than Harry Potter’s world. This is because The Hunger Games features commentary on current social issues that are relevant to young adults today.

A big social issue depicted in The Hunger Games is the commentary on politics. It asks the audience to think about what is means to have a democracy and freedom. This is a relevant topic to us today, because many times in American culture are we asked to recognize America as a democracy. In doing so, we are also taught what it means to be a democracy. The Hunger Games allows us to use our knowledge on democracy to understand and relate to the storyline. Within the Harry Potter storyline, the audience is instead asked to think of a world where the biggest problem is an evil dark lord.  

I also argue that The Hunger Games had a clear objective creating its storyline when choosing costume and setting. In keeping with the style of a dystopian future, it brings the audience closer to the story by making it similar to current times. This dystopian style resonates more so with audiences, unlike fantasy stories, because audiences have the opportunity to relate on both style, theme, and issues. By way of choosing similar clothing style, to current political issues, to current technology the dystopian story is more relatable. 

Overall, while the two texts are fictional stories featuring a young adult hero, The Hunger Games is more relatable to the audience through its dystopian theme. It has similar social issues that are relatable to our time today, with the issue about democracy and how our country view what democracy is today. The fashion in The Hunger Games is similar to a time period which we’ve seen compared to the robes in Harry Potter. With the dragons, Quiditch, and beating the evil wizard in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, there’s more of a relation between the audience and The Hunger Games when Katniss starts a revolution against her oppressor President Snow.