Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
12-2025
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9354-7518
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Communication
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Randall Fowler
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Lynette Sharp Penya
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dorothy Andreas
Abstract
In the decade between 2010 and 2020, more people participated in mass protests than at any other point in human history. From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street and Hong Kong’s “umbrella movement,” street demonstrations exploded on a global scale. This period of global unrest coincided with another explosion: the dystopian young adult series The Hunger Games surged in popularity, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon. Following the release of the book series and its subsequent film adaptations, The Hunger Games became a global symbol of grassroots resistance as social and political movements adopted the language and symbols of its fictional rebellion. My analysis traces the adoption and circulation of three key symbols of resistance—the three-finger salute, the phrase “If we burn, you burn with us,” and the mockingjay symbol. I also examine the intersection of performance and political engagement, as well as the larger cultural implications of activists turning to pop culture and fictional narratives as models of revolution.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Olivares, Rachel, "World on Fire: The Hunger Games and the Rhetoric of Revolution" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 970.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/970