Intertextuality refers to how one text can affect and add meaning to another text. The more you look, the sooner you realize intertextuality can be found almost anywhere and is most commonly found as references to other texts adding a specific meaning for a greater impact on the reader. Today we’re going to be exploring intertextuality between the novel: The Maze Runner and the Movie: The Hunger Games
Our two texts have a wide variety of similarities, we have chosen to focus on the protagonists, the dystopian theme, and the values and ideas of sacrifice present in both texts.
Summary Of Plots:
A Teenager named Thomas wakes up in the “Glade” with the other teenagers in a labyrinth. Immediately Thomas is very curious and starts to ask questions. Like the others before him, all their memories are completely gone. He quickly demonstrates his bravery and friendship and is promoted to be a runner, The person who goes into the maze to find a way out. The Hunger Games uses competition in order to control the population and prevent a rebellion or revolt against the Capitol. They order two tributes from the 12 districts in order to host the games nationally. Both characters live in these dystopian worlds where the minority holds all the power and control in the territory leaving most people in poverty and struggling to provide for themselves.
Characters:
Katniss in The Hunger Games is a 16-year-old girl who volunteers as a tribute in the competition held at the capitol otherwise known as the main city. In the maze runner, the protagonist is a 16-year-old boy named Thomas who was forced inside the maze by the Wicked, the creators of the facility doing research for the cure. The main ideas and themes encouraged by both texts revolve around the ideas of sacrifice, new and unfamiliar dystopian worlds, courage, and heroism. Both films involve an authority or higher power killing the innocent and using violence as a means of maintaining peace. This encourages both protagonists to stand up for themselves and their friends. In both the Hunger Games and Maze Runner we see how both protagonists live in a dystopian world where power and control are everything and something they don't have. Both Thomas and Katniss are controlled by their government and forced to participate in a life-threatening game. The two protagonists share similar traits such as bravery and sacrifice. These traits are important in their situations in a world of injustice and lack of freedom.
Setting:
The main source of power in The Hunger Games is the hostile government of the Capitol. Because the Capitol holds most of the country of Panem’s wealth, the government there is able to control the people in all of the districts across North America. The Hunger Games become an ultimate display of the government’s power and were designed to warn the populace against rebellion. The Hunger Games is a dystopia set in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America at an unknown time in the future. Panem consisted of the Capitol and 12 Districts each in various states of poverty. The Capitol is the wealthiest city and rules the 12 poorer Districts. The Maze Runner is also set in a dystopian-themed world in the future. The characters are placed in an expanse of green land called The Glade. The Glade is surrounded by a constantly changing maze and was built by WICKED. We learn that The Glade was a test or evaluation to determine who was the best and brightest orphan out of the millions that were left as a result of an epidemic that spread throughout the world.
Sacrifice:
Sacrifice plays a big role in both of these universes. In all the harsh environments of the Hunger Games and Maze Runner, we see how many characters risk their lives for the sake of saving the ones around them. Thomas risks his life to enter the maze and save his friends. In the quote, Katniss self-sacrificed herself to take her sister's place to participate in the Hunger Games. This represents her true values of family. Both worlds show that sacrifices make a big impact because they remind us that human life means isn’t about power or control but rather about valuing family and friends.
In the video, Katniss represents the values of family and sacrifice through her actions, emotions, and visual techniques from the scene. She steps up and volunteers to be a tribute immediately, she starts shouting and crying for her sister. This is a perfect example of the theme present in both of these texts. The Theme of sacrifice is evident and it suggests how powerless these people are and where they stand in society.
Differences:
The background of the main characters, While Katniss values nothing more than her family, Thomas has no memory of who he is or where he came from. At first, he didn’t have much of an identity whereas Katniss knew who she was and the people she was fighting for.
The Glade is an area about the size of 4-6 soccer fields surrounded by gigantic walls almost like a stadium. The boys don’t know what purpose they serve and decide to set camp in the glade while sending their runners out to see what they can find. However despite their meaningless situation, the weather was always sunny, it never rained or snowed, and it was never too hot or too cold to go with the fresh air. It foreshadows the amount of power and control people will go to, to make sure they’re safe by using people literally as guinea pigs for themselves.