World Literature

Shailene Woodley plays Beatrice Prior in the upcoming movie Divergent (March 2014), based on the dystopian young adult novel by Veronica Roth. The hugely popular book contains themes of economic struggle and class warfare. Jaap Buitendijk/Summit hide caption

itoggle caption Jaap Buitendijk/Summit

Shailene Woodley plays Beatrice Prior in the upcoming movie Divergent (March 2014), based on the dystopian young adult novel by Veronica Roth. The hugely popular book contains themes of economic struggle and class warfare.

Jaap Buitendijk/Summit

If you think kids are too young to worry about unemployment numbers, consider this: Some of our most popular young adult novels fairly shiver with economic anxiety. Take Veronica Roth's Divergent, this week's top New York Times Young Adult best-seller and a perennial on the list since its publication in 2011. Divergent's heroine, Beatrice Prior, braves hazing, groping and punching in order to enter the militaristic "faction" that she admires. She endures these dangers willingly because in Roth's dystopian, all-or-nothing Chicago, Beatrice would be thrown into the streets if she fails her initiation. There, among the ruined buildings and the reek of sewage, Beatrice would be forced to join Roth's "factionless, " the working poor who perform the scut work of Divergent's society. The prospect makes Beatrice cringe. For her and her peers, she explains, to be factionless is "our worst fear, greater even than the fear of death."

In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Gale, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth in the movie adaptation, become friends while they are both struggling to feed their impoverished families. Lionsgate hide caption

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In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Gale, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth in the movie adaptation, become friends while they are both struggling to feed their impoverished families.

Lionsgate

Financial terror also motivates Suzanne Collins' blockbuster novel The Hunger Games. In a world of predatory Capitol-ism, Katniss Everdeen and her family exist on the edge of starvation. Her most famous skills — hunting and foraging — are developed to keep her mother and sister alive. Economic desperation tinges even her romantic connections. Peeta first makes an impression when he throws Katniss two warm loaves of raisin nut bread. Gale meets her while poaching in the woods, and their friendship springs from one shared truth: "Gale and I agree that if we have to choose between dying of hunger and a bullet in the head, the bullet would be much quicker."