Learning from the Pain by Meghna

Everyone has had painful experiences and has felt like it was the worst thing that could have happened to them. Markus Zusak and Suzanne Collins use this common feeling across the world in both “The Book Thief” and “The Hunger Games”. In “The Book Thief,” Liesel has been faced with constant suffering with her loved ones leaving. In “The Hunger Games,” Katniss is forced to play a game for the entertainment of others and ripped away from the ones she loves as well. In both books, we learn that in life, everyone feels pain and suffering, but in the end learning from that experience is what matters the most.

A common theme that both text share is that sometimes pain and suffering is good because of the things you can gain from the experience. In “The Book Thief,” Liesel is constantly losing the things she loves the most. First, she loses her brother to Death, then her mother and then a fair bit later she loses the closest person she had to a father to the war. “Saliva was triggered. It was the urge to vomit. “What is this?”. Markus Zusak uses the craft technique of description to give readers a vivid image of exactly how Liesel was feeling. In “The Hunger Games,” Katniss is repeatedly going through pain. “Trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned,” thinks Katniss at the most impactful moment of her life. In both texts, the characters are faced with extreme pain in the worst possible ways. 

Although in both texts, the characters are faced with such extreme pain and suffering, there are many things that readers do not take into account when reading which is the knowledge you can learn and gain from the experience. In “The Book Thief,” one of the most noticeable moments of pain for Liesel was Hans being “drafted into the German army”. This was an extreme moment of pain for her because Hans was probably the person she loved the most, at least, that's what readers comprehend but when you look at it again with a different lens you can see how this event caused Liesel to grow and mature as a person. She learnt and gained from this experience through the pain. She learnt the harshness of war and not to take anything for granted. Her thoughts and views on the world matured as she was no longer a little girl but “half a woman now” not oblivious to the raging war around her.

The same common theme goes for “The Hunger Games” that with pain and suffering comes advantages and everything bad happens for a reason which is that you can learn from. In “The Hunger Games” when we fast forward to the ending when Katniss is split into two sides, one being if she should steal the victory and take the prize of winning the Hunger Games for herself or standing up for what's right and to not cooperate with the Capitol and give them what they want, she learns the true intentions of the people she thought she knew. She learn’t that President Snow and the Capitol, rather than being on her side, were actually against it. From this event, and the events afterwards, she learnt the true intentions and gained an understanding of the people around her. This shows that there is actually an advantage of pain and suffering - which is that you become more aware of your surroundings and in this case, the people you thought you knew.

Although in “The Hunger Games” and “The Book Thief” the theme of learning from harsh experiences is evident, both the texts share differences that, as readers, it is important to notice and take into consideration in our real lives. One of the most important differences to notice is how the characters in both texts reacted. Liesel in “The Book Thief” took to reacting in a more calm, silent way whereas, Katniss in “The Hunger Games” reacted in a more severe way in which she was determined to fight back the person, President Snow, who caused this pain to be inflicted on her. These books act as a reminder that it doesn’t matter how you react or the type of person you are, what matters is that you learn from the experience.

In both “The Book Thief” and “The Hunger Games”, Markus Zusak and Suzanne Collins teach readers the important message of no matter how bad you think an event or experience is, what you learn and gain from it is the most important thing. After analyzing both books, readers can conclude that ultimately it’s not the situation but how you react and respond to it is important and we as people, don’t have to let that those experiences get the better of us.