As we sat in the movie theater Monday evening, waiting 30 minutes for the beginning of the Hunger Games, an interesting question was raised. What is a young adult? The 4 of us sitting there are in our late 20’s and pretty close to obsessed with the story behind the movie we were about to watch. This was a movie that some of us had been waiting to see since it was announced last summer. Was it normal for people in their late twenties to be reading and LOVING young adult fiction and then waiting in line to see the movie?
Suzanne Collins got the idea for the Hunger Games trilogy when she was flipping back and forth between a reality show and coverage of the Iraq war. That seems pretty adult-like to me. These books were phenomenal and the movie did not disappoint. They cut things out of the movie, but it was necessary in order to tell the story on film. The book is written in first person and they can’t exactly do that in the movie. Justin & I have not read the book since last summer so the tiny details were not fresh in our minds. Katie read the book last Friday night/Saturday morning, so she was confused and sad about a few small things that they missed that I would not have even noticed. There were a few things in the movie that made me continue thinking about our conversation about young adult literature. Taylor Swift is on the soundtrack and also as famous in the young world as Justin Bieber. The cast has an average age of 15… well, maybe not, but it looks like it. If Teen Beat magazine is still on shelves, I’m 100% positive that the male leads are on the cover. One of them is even dating Miley Cyrus.
So, after thinking about all of that, I realized that maybe we don’t fit society’s definition of “young adult.” Even Wikipedia says that young adult literature is aimed towards 10-20 year olds, but I will always love the stories behind Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. It brings me a little comfort knowing that there are shows on TV like Pretty Little Liars and other weird teenage shows that kind of make me want to throw up. I didn’t dress up for the movie when we went. I don’t own a sorting hat. So, I appreciate good stories and entertaining movies, but I’m not a super fan and I don’t act like a teenager. Congrats to me!!
