Hunger games and us
How similar to us can a dystopian novel be — very.
It’s not difficult to figure out that Panem of ‘The hunger games’ is an exaggeration of our society. Suzanne Collins,the writer of the franchise,highlights the wealth-inequality,our love for reality TV,
addiction problems, police brutality, body modifications with hyperbole.
The hunger games is a dystopian novel about a country named Panem. Panem is divided into 13 districts and one Capitol. The story is about a girl named Katniss,from the poorest district and how she becomes a symbol of rebellion against the oppressive government of Capitol led by President Snow.
Collins doesn’t tell us much about the citizens of Capitol,other than the fact that they live a life so privileged that they drink concoctions so that they can eat more food. Maybe it wasn’t important to the story. In hindsight if she had elaborated more about the people of Capitol we wouldn’t have liked it. Because we are the people of Capitol.
In the story,the Capitol organizes a event called ‘The hunger games’ ,where 24 children from the districts are chosen and brought to a place called arena and must fight to death until the last one remains.
Hunger games was supposedly a distraction for the people of Panem,from their woes for the people of the districts,from the reality for the people of capitol. It was also a threat from the government — to not mess with them.
This is a very popular method among governments,keep the poor so poor that they aren’t able to talk about injustice and give the privileged sensational stories to engage with.
The rebellion is the most important part of the hunger games. The scene,where the people march towards the dam singing ‘The hanging tree’ is a powerful one. There is a growing deficit of trust between the people and political establishments. Protests have soared across the world. The people are demanding a world with more equality and justice.
When I read the hunger games a few years ago , I felt that the events were too exaggerated. President Snow’s rule in Panem was an absolute case of despotism. In reality no government could be that oppressive. But the more I read about politics,the more I come to know about the cruel ways of our world.
In our world too, the government dissenters have a fate similar to the avoxes in Panem.
Collins idea of people from the capitol enjoying the hunger games is inspired from the Roman Gladiator,where a person, often a slave or captive was compelled to fight to the death in a public arena against another person or a wild animal, for the entertainment of the spectators. Although this might seem too extreme to happen in this ages,variations of it exist. For example-the makeup Industry.
The star of the make-up industry is the chemical mica. Mica is obtained by people,especially children scrapping it with their bare hands from mines. Often they have to go deep into the mines where oxygen levels are low causing 10–20 deaths every month.
There is blood on our hands and most people are oblivious to it.
In Panem,people are numb to violence not just due to the hunger games but also because of the unsubtle ways of the peacekeepers(police),who whip people for petty crimes.
In our world too,children play with toy weapons. You’re wrong if you think that weapon toys have always existed. The widespread idea of toys came into being in 20 century. Before that there were other toys like kites and yo-yos but kids spent most of their time in school or helping out at home. So what what happened?
World war 2 happened. Since we had more ways of communicating than we during world war 1,the images and sentiments of world war 2 spread more. Not just games,even in the movies ,war is always showed in a patriotic light. The futility of war is ignored.
If the Panem is our future, the only thing to look forward is how gender is discussed. In Panem gender is invisible. There is no mention of gender roles in the entire series whatsoever. The women aren’t treated like gods either,there is equality in every sense.
The hunger games series will always remain one of my favorite book series.
I hope the next generation also enjoys it as a book series and nothing else.
