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Analysis: The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

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Do we live in a society where we are emancipated to do as we wish? Or are our actions dictated by basic economic factors? Karl Marx, a German philosopher who founded Marxism believes just that. His theory postulates that: "those groups of people who owned and controlled major industries could exploit the rest of the population through conditions of employment and by forcing their own values and beliefs onto other social groups." The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, provides the epitome of a society in which has developed to delineate Marxism. Myriads of aspects of the novel intertwine with the Marxist ideology of society. Firstly, how the capitalists' were holding the reins of the working class. Secondly, the social effect of the literary …show more content…

Set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America, with which has been split up into thirteen constituent districts that amalgamate to form the working class. These districts are forced to succumb to physical labour to provide The Capitol via their industry; luxury, masonry, technology, fishing, power, transportation, lumber, textiles, grain, livestock, agriculture, mining, and nuclear weaponry. In spite of the fact that those living in The Capitol are fewer in number and have an abundance of resources than those in the districts. As a result of leading a revolt against The Capitol, the thirteenth district (nuclear weaponry) was wiped out. Karl Marx theorized, "those groups of people who owned and controlled major industries could exploit the rest of the population through conditions of employment..." The Hunger Games depicts this impeccably as The Capitol utilizes their control over the districts for their benefit. The Marxian class theory is also present in The Hunger Games as The Capitol framed the basis of the social hierarchy within Panem. Out of fear of 'punishment' the districts

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Essential to overcoming adversity is the ability to cause change in yourself and others. In the book, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Katniss Everdeen, has to learn to be strong and brave in a crisis. This helps her to survive the Hunger Games, because it gives her more faith especially when the price of losing her family is on the line. Ultimately, Collins shows that Bravery and strength leads to a successful person and can help one survive in something life changing.

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By weaving ideas from the Marxist theory, Atwood uses intertextuality to effectively depict the eventual consequence of a dictatorial and theocratic society such as Gilead. Among one of the lowest classes were Handmaids, women who were starved of rights and freedoms. Karl Marx proposed the theory that when alienation occurs between classes and the lower class is restricted from the fruits of their labour, the lower class will rebel; they will repossess their earnings and the class division will cease to exist, ‘communism will replace capitalism’. As a result of this brutal oppression on the Handmaids, rose a ‘Women’s culture’ a unity of all the Handmaids. Despite the constraints forced onto them, they become ‘no longer single’ and even create a secret organisation; the ‘Grapevine’.

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The Marxism acknowledges the fact that it is an ideology, but also states that it is a belief system that views the world correctly; from the socioeconomic conditions that drive it. Marxists believe that the relationship between socioeconomic classes are the root of all human events, and explains that all human events in terms of distribution and dynamics of economic power - According to the Marxist theory, the upper class uses ideologies to manipulate the lower and middle class into working for them. These ideologies are used to convince the working class that they are equivalent to those in power. - The Upper class, use media, to implement their ideologies onto the working class, this is effective because people are most vulnerable to

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Based on their genetic make-up and upbringing, citizens are confined to lifelong service and given preset roles. Marx's idea of class struggle—in which the ruling class subjugates and exploits the proletariat for its own benefit—is reflected in this stratification. According to Marx, "class struggles are the history of all societies that have existed up to this point" (Marx & Engels,

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a science fiction book. The setting of this book takes place in Panem. Some major characters in the book would be Katniss, Gale, Primrose, and Peetah. Katniss is the main character, Gale is her friend while they are fighting in the games, Prim is Katniss sister, and Peetah teams up with Katniss in the hunger games. .

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The major theme in The Hunger game series is the inequity between rich and poor In the books, the author points out that people from the poor district have never known what is orange juice, coffee or chocolate, things people normally know in our world; but for people in district 12, these are luxuries that they cannot afford in their lives (Collins, 2008, p.60). The author used this as an example to mention how poor people live under the Capitol’s control and also provide a reasonable motivation for the following revolution. To show the contrast, the author also mentioned lives in the Capitol in Catching fire. People in the Capitol drink a special liquid to make them vomit so that they can keep eating more food, which shows the extremely

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For my 2nd outside reading essay I have decided to read the book “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. This book follows Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark and their battle in the 74th annual Hunger Games. In this essay I will cover the topics of Mood, Imagery, and Author’s Purpose. The author wrote this book mainly to entertain us.

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The Social Class Conflicts Through The Hunger Games The Hunger Games takes place in a futuristic society composed of twelve districts run by the Capitol. Every year one male and female tribute from each district will be put in an arena to fight to the death until one person remains. The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins depicts the struggles and countless endeavours of the proletariat as they fight to the death not only in the arena but navigating life post-games. This is shown through the false consciousness of the privileged, the manipulation and upperhand of the bourgeoisie, and the systems in place guaranteeing the cycle of poverty for the proletariats. The hunger games is a glorified gladiatorial game where only those lucky and

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The strengths of the Marxist perspective in analyzing the film are the first the fact that the country of Panem is socially divided by the Capitol and the 12 Districts which can be analyzed through his notions of social stratification. This territorial divide officially stratifies the constituents of Panem into those in control and those not. Another strength of this perspective is because there is this elite city that gets all the produce from the districts’ workers, there is an existence of a Capitalist elite class and a struggling working class. The fact that there have been revolutions that occurred and have been hinted at in the film is another strength because Marx would be able to analyze this through the steps for class struggle which would end in revolution. What limits the Marxist analysis of “The Hunger Games” would be that the culmination of a class struggle should always be revolution as the possible usage of other more diplomatic ways of creating a change have not been looked at.

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Introduction: In the novel “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins an important idea the writer developed was the idea of Governmental Control and Oppression. This idea was important as it helped me understand an important message for teenager, the idea that laws could control some populations and abused of its power could cause those living suffering. Paragraph 1: Governmental Control in the “Hunger Games” was something that was really highlighted as people in the capitol had control over those living in the district. The district had strict laws inflicted upon them, making life difficult.

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Part of their control is enforced by the Hunger Games in which a boy and a girl from each district compete until only one survivor is left each year. Many have claimed that Marxism is greatly intertwined with the story due to resemblance of contents: mainly, the presence of inequality among the rich and the poor. Marxism is applied in it because of the inequality of how the Capitol treated each district. The Capitol treats the higher districts like they are slaves and the lower districts like queens and kings.

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