The Hunger Games Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Gale Hawthorne is an eighteen-year-old living in District 12 of Panem. Gale is struggling to survive and he blames it on his government. He believes Panem is an unfair system that is oppressing its people and favoring the rich. Gale’s belief system in chapter one represents the ideas that Henry David Thoreau presents in his essay, “Civil Disobedience”. Thoreau believes that government should be lenient with their people and work with them for their common good, Gale actions as an individual shows that he agrees. In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau explains his belief that the government should be tolerant. He explains, “[He] heartily accepts the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’

Thoreau states, “Government is a best an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all are sometimes, inexpedient” (Thoreau 388). Government is supposed to be a resource to people. Eventually all governments will become corrupt and fail to meet the needs of its people. The system will oppress its people and the people will resent their government. This is the way Gale feels towards the political system of Panem, which favors the rich. Gale understands “That’s not [the rich’s’] fault, it’s no one’s fault. Just the way it is” (Collins 13). Since Gale is poor, he and his family are struggling to survive; they are hungry and the children are at risk of being picked for the Hunger Games. If Gale had the option “to choose between dying of hunger and a bullet in the head” he would chose the bullet because it is “quicker” (Collins 18). The Government of Panem should be providing Gale with support and the help he needs, instead Panem is hindering his opportunity to be an