According to Los Angeles Times reporter Rebecca Keegan, literature has a long history of putting children into grisly situations as an allegory for adult cruelty.  The most recent example being The Hunger Games made widely famous by the recent release of the movie based on the books by Suzanne Collins.

Collins has said inspiration The Hunger Gamescame from the story in Greek mythology in which the people of Athens send seven boys and seven girls to be eaten by the Minotaur until Theseus shows up to kill it.

In stories like Collins’s The Hunger Games, the Grimm fairy tales, Lord of the Flies and even Harry Potter children are used as mirrors for adult problems.  Many even believe that these problems can only really be solved by the youth and innocence of  children.

However the young get something out of it too.  For many teens the scenes of battling children are very relatable, if not literally then metaphorically and can be very cathartic.

As Keegan said in her article, “Who wants to read about sunshine and happiness?”

Read the original article by Rebecca Keegan.