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Back to Personal Page Eddie Rodriguez YA Lit Dr. Sherry Critical: The Hunger Games  Reading //The Hunger Games// by Suzanne Collins threw me for a loop with how I look at our world today. I would definitely consider this young adult literature for various reasons. The tale is about Katniss, a 16 year-old-girl that is born into a harsh, poor area in what used to be the United States. She is morally forced to take her sisters place in a fight in “The Hunger Games” to the death with twenty-three other teens from around the country now known as Panem. The author may throw us in a fictional post-US scenario of government but it did make me realize major factors that play out in the book as they do in the real world. Problems such as government control, laws, class, friends, trust, and the human desire to live were my main focus. The way things work may not actually be fair, but that’s life.  At the beginning we find out some things about the main character that show that she is a provider. She risks her life and safety to go hunting in the woods, even though it is forbidden by the Capitol. The Capitol could be our law enforcement officials in present day. The Capitol seems to have laid down crazy laws that must be obeyed and violators can be executed. They have made 13 Districts to start off after the US had gotten out of the picture. Consider those as the 13 colonies that we started with. The Capitol made sure the people of different districts did not interact and all did their separate work (e.g. Mining, Farming, etc.). I cannot imagine how the world would be like today if our government had taken this route and forbid freedom of any kind. This was no dumb society either. People knew how to bend rules secretly just as we do now, but yet the Capitol had so much more highly advanced technology that they used to keep the districts under control. That could have been us. They went as far as destroying a district which takes us to Katniss’ time, with 12 districts left. The government controls and toys with the people. This makes me think, could our government actually pull something like this on today’s society? I thought about it the whole book and it could possibly happen but it’s very unlikely. We already have enough people devoted to act upon any directions from the government but yet I believe we have enough thinkers to realize when too much is enough. But they could very well be unfair to us if they wanted to be and some people already think they are.  Not only does the Capitol divide the people, but the districts divide themselves somewhat as well. The people that are starving do not communicate as friends with those that are eating enough or at leisure. But if we look at today’s world, we do the same. People that have plenty are not just becoming friends with the homeless and changing the world. Katniss describes her district quite well she say it’s “Where you can starve to death in safety” (6). That is how our country works as well. We are not slaves or killed for nothing by our government. We are “safe” but yet we have people starve to death on a daily basis. Raised the questioned in my head, would we be better off not starving but left to fend for ourselves? I came to the conclusion that that would be horrible. Having some safety and the majority fed is something we have to do because we can’t help everyone but we should try to make everything better. But in the book it’s not the majority that is fed, only certain districts are well fed along with the Capitol. Once again their world and ours are not always fair.  The entire book is centered around “The Hunger Games” but do we have anything like this in today’s society? I compared the Olympics, and any other champion sports out there to this. They had two teens from each district and we use people from every country to compete for honor. Also, our professional athletes could be compared to their “career tributes.” So we have all the elements of the game but we skip the death and violence part. I feel like if the world went into chaos, a new government could easily keep these games going but put life and death on the table which is a scary thought. Along with that, the tributes are not normally trying to be selected but doing the opposite. We only have athletes by volunteer. But we can go through a draft if soldiers are needed in which case would make everyone in danger of having to risk their lives, just like the kids in the book. In our major games competition is usually quite fair and well matched, but our chances in life to succeed are not always the same. In their society, things can be very one-sided and futile. 12-year-olds against 18 year-olds is just cruel. But just like here as there, life doesn’t have to be fair, and their world is far from it.  All the way through the book, the presence of the Capitol is revered and ever thought of. Everyone knows they have certain roles to play and rules they cannot and will not break even though they may not understand why every rule is in place. The same goes for current day US. We have an abundance of useless laws and laws that are just harsh or unreasonable. Yet we have blind followers that will agree with anything that comes from our government. I am not against it but ignorance and listening to authority without purpose is a dangerous thing. Katniss, Gale, and Peeta seem to be the only ones that want to break out of the vicious cycle that the government has thrown them into. Katniss despises her predicament and the fact that it exists. She says while talking to Peeta “All I can think is how unjust the whole thing is, the Hunger Games” (117). People like them are how revolutions start and how heroes are remembered. If we look through our own history we see people that refused the rules because of how wrong they were and once things changed they are forever remembered for those accomplishments. Maybe change hasn’t happened by the end of the first book of this trilogy but it very well might by the end. Their game is not over and neither is life.  The biggest question that came out of reading this was what does the author want us to get from this? What is the message? I believe it really could be to question authority if it seems wrong and don’t confide to anything harmful that can be changed. I don’t believe the story tells us to flat out to rebel but possibly to appreciate our freedom but to also realize how controlled we are. Think about how much freedom one actually has. There are still laws to follow even if one disagrees with that idea. And one must work their way up the food chain and try not to be a product of bad societies and such. They find a way to fight against the Gamemakers unfair ruling of no longer accepting a team by passive defiance which was quite clever. Maybe we could look at problems in our society and outsmart the system but in a way that isn’t illegal and could cause change for the better. Their fake suicide attempts were just the thing they needed to show the Capitol they didn’t have all the control and that since they wanted to play hard ball, it wasn’t going to be easy to win. “//We both know they have to have a victor//. Without a victor, the whole thing would blow up in the Gamemakers’ faces.” (344). All one needs to defeat something too powerful is wits and the opportunity, and that is a life lesson to learn in this unfair world. Work Cited Collins, Suzanne. //The Hunger Games//. New York, Toronto, London, Ruckland, Sydney, Mexico City, New Delhi, Hong Kong: Scholastic Inc. 2009. (6, 117, 344). Print.