SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Tan Yong Chien

STUDENT ID NO: 0320200

FILMS SELECTED: Divergent & The Hunger Games

WORD COUNT:690

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

Movies, are a form of entertainment involving visual and audio effects to

portray a story. A story can be from reality, books, novels or inspirations. The two

science fiction movies I am going to compare are the movies entitled Divergent and

The Hunger Games. These two movies possess several similarities and also

characteristics that make each of them unique. The similarities between these two

movies are they are both written in novels before the films.

The first similarities between the two movies is their genre, they fall under the

category of “Science Fiction”, “Action” and “Adventure”. This means that the

primary elements of two films are similar. The main protagonists are responsible to

preventing the enemies’ plans from taking place.

The story line of Divergent is about a society is divided into 5 factions.

Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Erudite the intelligent, Candor the

honest, and Amity the peaceful. When all teenagers reach the age of 16, they must

choose to either stay in their faction of birth, or transfer into another faction. Beatrice

Prior must make the decision to stay with her family in a faction she feels she isn't

right for, or to transfer into another faction, and leave her family behind. What follows

is a highly competitive initiation, where the newly renamed Tris must make some

tough decisions, but she must also keep a secret that she was warned could mean

death, while she juggles friends, initiation, and a newfound love interest. But there is

a secret lying beneath everything that threatens to tear the city apart.

As in The Hunger Games, it is set in a future North America known as

"Panem", the Capitol selects a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from

each of the twelve outlying districts to compete in the annual "Hunger Games", a

televised fight-to-the-death. The film is centered around Katniss Everdeen - a 16-

year-old girl from District 12, who volunteers for her 12-year-old sister, Prim, when

Prim's name is chosen - and Katniss's fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark, with

whom she has some rather dramatic history. Katniss is then rushed to the Capitol,

where she undergoes intense training before being thrust into the arena to fight to

become the victor of the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games.

The similarities between these movies based on the story line above, they are

female protagonists and both of them are carrying missions to save the world. The

characteristics of these movies are interesting. Tris, she has a secret that she is

Divergent, which means she doesn't fit into any one group. If anyone knew, it would

mean a certain death. In The Hunger Games, Katniss is willing to volunteer to

replace her sister who got chosen to represent for their District to participate The

Hunger Games. Other way of saying is to represent their district to be a tribute. In

the movie Divergent,Tris finds her true love in Tobias "Four" Eaton, who trains her

and helps her lead the resistance against their oppressors. Four is far more likely

to kill for Tris than to die for her. In The Hunger Games, Katniss has two boys that

would die for her in Peeta Mellark who is her loves one when they meet in The

Hunger Games and Gale Hawthorne who is her boyfriend in her district. While they

are both allies to the female lead, and provide help along the way.

Moreover, both of these movies consist of the most important element in

science fiction movie which is violence. For example, Tris gone through all those

testing to be a qualified Dauntless to conceal her real identity “Divergent”. The tests

including killing her family and “Four” her true love, her inspector. In the other hand,

Katniss have to train hard from her mentor to survive in The Hunger Games.

To conclude, the two films do have lots of similarities aspects but they are both

different films by two different director or writer. Ultimately, I have chosen these two

popular science fiction movies as my choice to show the comparison of similarities

that I can spot between these two movies.

References :

" Dive rge nt (12A)" . En te rtainmen t One . British Boa rd of Film Classif icat ion

" First Foo ta ge From YA A dap ta tio n 'Diver gen t' Sho wn t o Fan s"

" 'Dive rgen t' Mo vie Sc oop : S creen write r Eva n Dau ghe rty Sp ills o n th e Ada pta tion

" 'Gam e of Throne s' wr ite r Va ne ssa Taylor joins 'Dive rgen t' to co -wri te s crip t"

" Dive rgen t (2014 ): Revie w"

" Mo ckingjay p ro ve s th e Hun ge r Game s is must -rea d lite ra tu re

"T h e Hun ge r Game s trilog y Discussio n Gu ide

" B a r n e s & N ob le, T h e Hu n g e r G a m e s (E d i t o r i a l Re v i e w s)"