The Desensitiation Of Katniss In The Hunger Games, By Suzanne Collins

We live in a world where people are often desensitized to certain things around us. These things we have become numb to are varied and fluctuate between subjects, however, the way the citizens in the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, are desensitized is different than how we are. In The Hunger Games, the country of Panem is separated into twelve districts, not including the Capitol. The Capitol controls all the districts and hosts the annual Hunger Games, in which one male tribute and one female tribute are chosen from each district and sent into the games to fight each other to the deaths. The last one standing wins. In District Twelve, our main character Katniss, has her sister chosen, so Katniss volunteers and takes her place. Katniss

Secondly, we have instances of citizens being forced to celebrate The Hunger Games like it’s a holiday. Katniss explains how this is when she is waiting for the reaping to begin, as found on page nineteen. “To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation.” This piece of text evidence shows how the Capitol treats this as a festival, rewarding the survivor and their district with gifts for winning. For this reason, the Hunger Games are celebrated because of the pressure from the Capitol to do so. Lastly, there is the case of when the Gamemakers switched the rules up on Katniss and Peeta. Later on in the book, Claudius Templesmith’s voice announces to the remaining tributes that a rule has changed. Two people can win, but only if they’re from the same

But he is not inviting us to a feat. He’s saying something very confusing. There’s been a rule change at the Games. A rule change - a change! That in itself is mind bending since we don’t really have any rules to speak of except don’t step off your circle for sixty seconds and the unspoken rule about not eating one another. Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive.” as well as on page three hundred and forty-two, “As I stoop to pick it up, Claudius Templesmith’s voice booms into the arena. ‘Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed,’ he says. ‘Good luck and may the odds ever be in your favor.’ There’s a small burst of static then nothing more. I stare at Peeta in disbelief as the truth sinks in. They never intended for us to live. This has all been devised by the Gamemakers to guarantee the most dramatic showdown in history.” These two quotes from the story show that the Capitol never originally planned for the two of them to