A totalitarian regime suppresses the wants of the society and denies them the basic necessities of life. Through the portrayal of a totalitarian regime that oppresses the citizens in order to maintain wealth and power for a certain group of the population of Panem, Suzanne Collins warns against the idea of the government controlling every part of the citizens’ lives. In her book The Hunger Games, Collins appeals to the citizens of tyrannical governments such as North Korea, who have similar governments as the Capitol, and to the youth of America to be actively aware of their own political situation (Collins 18). The increasing dictatorship of the reigning Capitol played a key role in fueling the sparks of a revolution after Katniss Everdeen was chosen to be one of the tributes (Collins 24). Collins urges the youth of America to be actively aware of the political situation in order to prevent the tyranny of a totalitarian regime. As evident from “The Politics of The Hunger Games” by Jamey Heit, the districts suffered oppressive conditions because of the “inaction from a lot of people” (The Politics of The Hunger Games 14). The only way such a tyrannical governance can be prevented is by the youth getting involved in the social and political life. …show more content…
The Politics of The Hunger Games notes that once “the source of injustice” is recognized, the citizens “must act to remove the source of that injustice from” the “political processes” (Heit 170). Heit urges the citizens, especially the youth, to be “proactive in” “political engagement” (170). He reflects on the impact of public inaction and the importance of Katniss’s character as a youth in revolting against the Capitol. As Heit conveys, it is very essential for the youth in this country to actively participate in political matters and become aware of the current political
Dystopian Societies A dystopian society by definition is the exact opposite of a utopia. This means that nothing is perfect, or peaceful. Everything is chaos and nothing works out right. This could be because of a rebellion, because a group has too much power, or because the main goal of a society did not work out as planned.
The novel takes place in Panem, a nation made up of an upper-class metropolis known as the Capitol, as well as twelve servile districts that surround it. These districts are oppressed and exploited by the Capitol, which holds a lottery each year in order to choose “tributes” for a competition called the Hunger Games. Through this drawing, the Capitol selects a boy and a girl from each district and forces them to fight within a massive arena until there is only one tribute left alive. The Capitol claims that the event is both punishment for a rebellion from the districts and a memorial for those lost during the revolt, but presents it as an exciting spectacle that is televised all around Panem. The Capitol holds the Hunger Games in order to keep the districts in line, viewing those living in them as uncultured dangers to society who could rebel the moment they feel empowered.
The twelve districts in theory should view the Hunger Games as the necessary tool that keeps Panem from uprising and self-destruction, however, the reception of the Games in the really poor districts clearly shows that the Capitol cannot reform them to think so. Statistically, the poor districts are always the most likely to lose one year’s competition because they lack resources to train tributes and their children are starving. Therefore, the response to the Hunger Games in the poor districts who are on the brink of starvation is the most dramatic. Citizens of districts such as 11 and 12 can only view the Games as injustice because once a child is chosen at the Reaping he or she is evidently doomed to die. There are rare exceptions as the
The Hunger Games is a fascinating series that challenges ideas about government and society. The government and elite citizens force the youth of different economic backgrounds to hunt one another for the amusement of the society’s elites and to demonstrate leadership. The districts have no choice but to obey the president's commands unless they wish to be publically humiliated and killed. Does this represent our political system? We have the freedom of speech but if we tried to start an uprising we would be detained and
There are several themes in the book, each one has a significant meaning to the storyline. The first symbol that describes the theme of abuse of power is government control. The reason that they hold the Hunger Games is because it is a dystopian society and most of the districts are poor and the capitol likes it because it keeps them entertained just because they believe that they are superior to everyone else who lives outside the capitol. To explain this more into detail, the government controls all the districts and all the districts have to follow the rules or else there is a serious punishment.
In the Hunger Games series, a dystopian future is set up. The government of Panem, The Capitol, holds the wealth of Panem giving it the power to control all districts. In order to enforce this theory, they created the Hunger Games. They suppressed the rights of the citizen’s of Panem and selected their children in order to fight each other do death for survival. These games were created to scare the people and show them who was in charge.
The Games involve a televised fight to the death among twenty-four children, one boy and one girl from each district. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to compete in the Hunger Games to save her sister and becomes the symbol of rebellion against the oppressive regime. The Hunger Games portrays a society where the ruling class is wealthy and powerful, and the lower class is exploited and oppressed. In this world, the government uses the media to manipulate people's thoughts and emotions and suppress any form of dissent. The central theme of The Hunger Games is the importance of freedom, rebellion, and
The famous Roman orator and senator Publius Tacitus once wrote that “the more the laws, the more corrupt the government.” A corrupt system always tries to put restrictions and create laws in order to ensure that their power as an authority is not in danger of being disregarded. In Suzanne Collins’ renowned novel The Hunger Games, the Capitol is a corrupt system in Panem because it abuses its powers to control the citizens. It does so by forcing restrictions on the freedom of the people, favoring the rich and imposing harsh punishments.
The capitol believe that they are in charge because they are more wealthier than those raised in the districts. As a teenager I learnt the idea of equal rights and that both societies should be treated evenly, because if the segregation continues we can no longer call ourselves human, as we think we are better than a similar being to us. There is no perfect utopia in any world, even in the hunger games. Those living in the capitol may believe that they are superior but in the end they will probably be rebelled against and crushed as a society. There is no perfect utopia for anyone.
A few of the ways the government will manipulate and distract its people are by the development of a clever social hierarchy system and the believable techniques of propaganda. The totalitarian governments created in George Orwell's 1984 and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games are very comparable when it comes to the rigid social structure to maintain control and power over its citizens. The social hierarchy developed in the novel The Hunger Games, begins with a leader figure of the nation Panem: President Snow. He runs the futuristic Capitol which lords over all the other twelve districts and portrays economic dominance over Panem.
In the Hunger Games the Capitol, led by President Snow is behind the brutal competition that took place annually, one boy and one girl are selected from each twelve districts and our sent to fight to the death. President Snow holds a tyrannical dictatorship which places the power in the people, the majority of whom makes the decisions. He holds total political and economic dominance over panem which is enforcing capital punishment and nuclear devastation. The Capital puts on the Hunger Games world wide to the twelve districts to the Capitol’s power and entertainment. President Snow is a powerful president creating a negative effect on
The Hunger Games and women in society: Suzanne Collins author of “The Hunger Games” designed Katniss Everdeen as the idealistic image of women in society. Her strength, skills, and self-control make her a figure of a woman perfect to match how our society wants women to be like and Suzanne wants that to stand out and make us think about it. Suzanne Collins wants to express how she thinks female should be like in everyday life and express that Katniss is much more than just a character, she is a message that is being sent to all the readers. Katniss breaks all the already established stereotypes by being able to survive, improvise and control herself in bad moments when even the toughest person would break apart. Katniss is strong since she was born she was being “tested”, she knows a wide variety of survival skills and her knowledge expands even more when she starts practicing for the hunger games.
All of these factors are presented in the novel throughout the experience of Katniss Everdeen in the games. Katniss is a 16 years old teenager from District-12, one of the districts where families suffer to put a something in their empty stomach. Her bad luck leads her to become a tribute in the hunger games, which is an undebatable evidence that the "Hunger Games" novel is a dystopia. To begin with, the hunger games are created by the government of Panem. So basically it is an annual competition where 2 kids - a girl and a boy- between the age of twelve and eighteen, are chosen from
“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is a suspenseful and frightening story about a 16 year old girl, Katniss everdeen who is born into a small village called District 12. The capitol, which controls the districts hosts an annual Hunger Games each and every year. Two tributes, a boy and a girl from each district are chosen between the ages of 12-18 to compete against 22 other tributes, but only one can win. Katniss is not chosen, but her younger sister Prim is chosen at only 12 years old. Katniss volunteers in Prim 's place and is now in the hunger games.
The Hunger Games trilogy revolves around universal dystopian themes such as :oppression, rebellion, class tension as well as appearance vs. reality ," Collins creates the world that on one hand seems quite improbable and extreme, but on the other, vividly reflects some specific issues in a real world, like social inequalities, ignorance and passivity of the people" (Macanić 7). Oppression is perhaps the most common and prevalent dystopian theme as it serves as a warning against a highly probable dark future through shedding light on the dark side of contemporary trends such as advanced technology and reality TV-shows .The Capitol 's oppression operates on two levels; districts and individuals. The districts in general and districts 11 and 12 in particular have suffered great injustices at the ruthless hands of the Capitol ; however, there is no greater injustice than The Hunger Games themselves not only are the people of Panem forced to surrender their children as tributes for the Capitol 's citizens viewing pleasure for a crime they had no hand in committing ,but they are also forced to watch helplessly as their children are killed in the most brutal of manners .In Catching Fire (2009) , President Snow decrees that " the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors" in order to get rid of Katniss once and for all ,and to further assert the Capitol 's dominance and quell any thoughts of rebellion(172).