Oppression In The Hunger Games

In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, an idea that was worth learning about was oppression. It was worth learning about because one, it showed me how oppressors infringe on basic human rights, two, it made me see how desperate oppressed people can be, and three, the book showed how cruel autocratic governments usually are. These themes are worth learning about because they are still very real problems around the world today. One of the most striking features of the Hunger Games is how many basic human rights the Capitol violates and denies the districts, like food, safety and decent respect. The whole hunger games force people to give up their children and then watch them be killed in gruesome ways. This violates the third article of the UN declaration of human rights, which states "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person". It means that you have the right to live and be free to move about and the security that you aren't going to be taken to some faraway place and forced to try to survive, and/or kill other children your age. They also are constantly watching their citizens, and anyone who says something even remotely rebellious or against the government is dragged away and tortured, never to be seen again, as clear in this quote when Katniss and Peeta are wary of cameras watching

In the book, when Katniss and Peeta almost commit suicide in the games, it is an example of how desperate they were, to die on their own terms, and not be forced to kill each other by the Capitol. They can't bear having to fight each other, so they decide to rebel against the Capitol's instructions. This is an example of how people who view themselves as oppressed never want to stay that way, and will resist in any way they can. Examples of this are found all over the modern world, from the Chinese cultural revolution to the American civil rights