This thesis analyses four novels of the dystopian series by the American author Suzanne Collins, namely The Hunger Games trilogy, which includes the novels The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, as well as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. A literary-theoretical analysis was conducted to determine the setting in terms of time and place of the stories, and to classify the novels by genre. This was followed by an analysis of the narrators, starting with the trilogy, in which the author uses a first-person unreliable narrator, and then moving on to The Ballad, which features a third-person reliable narrator. In the narratological analysis, I delved into the concept of the implied author. Subsequently, I explored the area of intertextuality and how the author weaves ancient history and mythology, literary works, and three philosophical views on natural law and the social contract—those of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau—into the novels through symbols and citations. Finally, I addressed the relationship between literature and ethics, with a particular focus on examining the ethical positions Collins establishes in the literary works mentioned above. These positions were illustrated through the interpretation of Panem as an allegory for the United States and Western societiy in general. I also touched upon Locke’s theory of the tabula rasa, which the author incorporates into The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the allegorical nature of the love triangle in The Hunger Games trilogy, through which Collins presents two different perspectives in the just-war debate.
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