摘要：AbstractWhen Williams (1958) defined culture as “ordinary”, he was referring to those everyday elements - “common meanings and direction” – that form the foundation of our existence (p. 93). One of the most visible cultures of that everyday life is, of course, food, which is considered as a simple thing since being consumed on a daily basis. However, food is much more than just a way of survival. In “Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption”, Roland Barthes (1997) introduces the idea that food is not just for eating anymore. He considers food not just as a simple object we eat and states that food “sums up and transmits a situation; it constitutes an information; it signifies….that it is a real sign, perhaps the functional unit of a system of communication” (p. 21). The type of food, their preparations and way of eating them are what make and reflect the culture of people. It can be considered as a very important factor in determining how we see ourselves and others; and, therefore, it acts as a key reflector of our social and political issues. Accordingly, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy centers a dystopian future America around an absence and abundance of food. Her constant employment of food related discourse and food vocabulary metaphorically show characters’ own political, cultural and personal understandings of the society; and, this makes the food imagery act as a very strong source of power in the hunger inflicted districts. In this paper, I will analyze how food metaphor is portrayed symbolically throughout the novel and what it renders related to the characters and society as a whole.
