The Hunger Games
The novel The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a book that most people have probably read. Although the book is fiction and has some very unrealistic things that happen, the themes are universal and can be applied to anything. The main theme displayed in the book is nonconformity. Katniss Everdeen is a very strong and independent girl from the beginning. She goes out hunting in the woods even though its against the law, and also most girls in the book don't do that kind of thing by choice. When Katniss's little sister Prim, who is only 12, gets picked to represent District 12 in the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers right away to take her place. Throughout the book, there is many ways that Katniss defies the government. Katniss is disgusted with how her government and country runs, how everyone in the Capitol has luxurious lifestyles and so many things that they don't even know what to do with them, and how almost all of the other districts are suffering and barely have enough to eat. In Katniss's final and most extreme act of defiance is when she and her partner form her district, Peta, are the final two left in the games. They decide to take poisonous berries and kind of pretend to almost commit suicide together, so there would be no winner of the Hunger Games. Both Peta and Katniss made it out of the arena alive and together. This act angered the President, and caused a lot of trouble for Katniss and Peta in the other books. Katniss does not conform at all to what her society tells her to do, and although this is a fiction book, it shows in an enhanced way that being and individual might just get you what you want in the end.