47 pages • 1 hour read
Monica HughesInvitation To The Game
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Explore the teens’ lack of control over their lives. How would The Game be different if the teens knew from the start they were preparing to colonize a new planet?
Analyze the similarities and differences between the socioeconomic system of Lisse’s world and the economic systems in place today. How does the novel serve as a critique of such systems?
Trace the theme of the relationship between work and purpose throughout the novel. How does Lisse find a sense of purpose at various points in the novel, and what does the novel suggest is necessary for a meaningful life?
Write an essay in which you discuss the role of technology plays in empowering or disempowering Lisse and her friends. What seems to be Hughes’s overall message concerning the effects of technology on society?
What does the novel’s depiction of Prize, the new planet, as an allusion to the Christian concept of heaven reveal about its moral message?
How does the novel use the contrasting settings of the city and the new planet to establish that one is a dystopia and the other a utopia?
Explain how the novel employs recurring images and phrases to contribute to mood. How does the mood of the text reflect the experience of living under a surveillance state?
Despite The Government’s harsh restrictions and unfair treatment, Lisse and her friends do not rebel against it. Write an essay in which you explain how Lisse and her friends’ reactions to authoritarianism reveal the challenges of overturning such a political system.
The allusions to the Holocaust connect the injustices the unemployed teens experience to real-life historical events. What do the various references to historical events show about the novel’s perspective on Hughes’s time (the late 20th century)? Pick three historical allusions to explain.
The debate over whether The Game is real or just a simulation dominates the first half of the book. In what ways does Lisse’s belief regarding The Game resemble religious faith? How is The Game a metaphor for religion, and what does this metaphor reveal about the novel’s perspective on faith?
