Hunger Games: A Criticism Of A Discipline Society

The Hunger Games: A criticism of a disciplinary society
The premise of the Hunger Games has in its short period of publication caught the attention of numerous academia, sociologists and geologists globally for its socio-political commentary as well as focus on punishment and surveillance that hints at a strong parallel to Colonial America and its Government (Renfrow, Lundy: 2013). Mark Thomas in his paper entitled: Law, Law and Power in the Hunger Games describes Panem as a trajectory of panem et cirenses of ancient Rome, as the games exhibit surveillance and reality television as 'a sadistic voyeurism for an effete elite of consumers'- the citizens of the Capitol (2013). In my opinion, Panem is run by a Plutocratic Government under which

Foucault presents a compact model of the disciplinary mechanism extracted from the Archives militaires de Vincennes, a seventeenth century town confronted with a plague and responding accordingly (Foucault, Leach:1997). Firstly, severe spatial partitioning occurs that results in the town being closed off and divisional. Secondly, each division is kept under strict surveillance where individuals are under constant observation. Thirdly, all events and happenings are documented continuously. Fourthly, power is put into effect with a continuous hierarchical figure, thus meaning that power is exercised without division (ibid). I would also note the ritual nature of a disciplined society, for it functions as a closed loop cycle that repeats itself, only to be disrupted for a moment until due punishment is enacted. Foucault then builds on these principles through an analysis of the Panopticon, wherein he states that the Panopticon takes on the work of a naturalist in that it functions like a laboratory where experiments can be carried out on the prisoners, and its potential as a power tool goes as far as subjectifying the director in charge of managing the tower (Foucault,

The 12 Districts are knowingly being monitored by the sovereign Peacekeepers (fig 4.), taking note of day to day activity only enacting punishment when the cycle is broken. Furthermore, surveillance has a critical and ongoing presence in the trilogy; as the Hunger Games are televised to all of Panem, of course following the editing by the Game Makers in the control room who see all, but reveal selectively. The importance of surveillance as a disciplinary tool here invokes the viewed party into a state conscious and everlasting visibility, this is according to Foucault is 'permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action' (Foucault,