Violence has been a tool used by governments to control their citizens throughout history. The Hunger Games' Capitol employs the games to maintain power and order over its districts, much like past authoritarian regimes have used propaganda and public executions. The recurring theme of using fear and violence to maintain control is a common theme in dystopian literature, emphasizing the risks of unchecked government power. The rise in popularity of reality TV shows and competitions like Survivor and Big Brother raises the possibility of such gruesome events being televised for public consumption, as in the Hunger Games.
Strict rules and control/suppression of truth are also prevalent themes in both Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games. In Fahrenheit 451, the government prohibits its citizens from having access to books and information, with Montag saying, “We’re not allowed to think for ourselves anymore” (Bradbury, 44). This quote highlights the strict rules and control that the government imposes on its citizens in order to maintain power. In The Hunger Games, the Capitol controls information and spreads propaganda to maintain its power, with Plutarch Heavensbee saying, “The Capitol controls the media.
This in turn lead to mass destruction and caused the government to form Panem and turn to totalitarian. This then made the government hold the annual Hunger Games to remind people of the great rebellion and to continue growing the seed of doubt that whoever wants to try to overthrow the Capital, they will fail immensely. Even their punishments for stealing or hunting illegally is harsh and very violent. The US however, is tremendously less violent than Panem in the traditions and their punishments.
Did you know that the book The Hunger Games, sold 100 million copies since 2008? Although The Hunger Games is an original idea, Suzzane Collins took heavy inspiration from many modern and historical stories and epics. The ideas and character designs found in The Hunger Games are there due to other current and historical fiction. The story The Hunger Games uses the Capitol to show a corrupt government that rules over others with drastic reaches in how lower classes are treated. It states in the text that, (referring to the hunger games)“this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how we are at their mercy.
The idea of being able to shape and distort the world around you is a strong and prevailing idea in the popular series ‘The Hunger games’, where the gamemakers would dictate how the world the ‘players’ were in changed and through this, how they lived. The gamemakers were capable of doing this as their in depth and complete understanding of the mechanics they were using and of all life in or around the districts and Capitol allowed them to change things like the weather or the DNA of a species. The winner of the hunger games usually was the person who could easily adapt to the bizarre living conditions they had been hurled into, and through this it was clearly shown how powerful knowledge can truly be. When Neo first has to experiment with his
In Hunger Games what creates the rebellion is inequality and extreme differences between poor and rich people. Country called Panem is divided in Capitol and districts from 1 to 12. The wealthiest is the Capitol and from District 1 to District 12, the level of poverty and hunger increases. Withal, Hunger Games are mortal games which are designed to
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: A Modern Day Odyssey? The Hunger Games is about a civilization that randomly selects two members from the different districts. Those two members are then forced to fight in an “arena” in which there is only one victor. In a way the Hunger Games is very similar to the Odyssey. The Odyssey begins years after the Trojan War has ended and Odysseus has not returned home.
However, each government had its twist on totalitarianism. Uglies made people subject to the operation, Divergent made people take a serum that put them in a trance that made them kill people, and Hunger Games made two people from every district compete in a killing game as well as stationed troops within each district that ensured people complied with the government. In The Hunger Games anybody who in any way went against the government was assassinated. For example, in District 11, At one time they talk about their districts and their lives and therefore Rue tells Katniss that “[...] [they are] not allowed to eat the crops“ (p. 202) and that if you eat or keep parts of the harvest “[...]
The Hunger Games (2008) is set in the future in a modern world analogy of USA but the country is given a fictional name of Panem. There were 13 districts in the country; each specializing in the extraction, production and manufacturing of different goods and raw materials like coal, for example, which were handed over to the Capitol resulting in the extreme poverty that the districts faced. District 13 rebelled against the power of The Capitol, the hub of power and technology, and met their doom. To prevent other districts from doing the same, the Capitol decided to hold a televised reality show-- the Hunger Games in which a boy and a girl from each district are selected as tributes to fight till death in the arena; the victor of the Hunger Games being rewarded with a house and food for a lifetime. As the districts face extreme poverty they participate in the games, which are a source of mere entertainment for the people of the Capitol.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins describes a world where technology is used to oppress people by using the games where two tributes from each district are selected randomly to compete in “games”. They go into an arena and fight for their lives against the other twenty-four tributes. The capitol uses this as entertainment, and finds pleasure in terrorizing the twelve outer districts. They created this system to keep the districts from rebelling, and the people in the capitol are benefiting from the labor and resources of the twelve districts. The more we divide ourselves from each other, racially, sexually, and religiously, the closer we get to having a reality like The Hunger Games.
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
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.
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.
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.