Social Issues in The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games series was one of the most anticipated and talked about movies, earning around $535 million with just the domestic opening weekend. The movie was based on the book series The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The book was later turned into a movie, as Will Fetters said “it helps when a book already reads like it was constructed for film.”
Although it may seem like the book/movie is directed towards adolescents because of the love triangle between characters, people usually ignore its deeper meaning- the message involving the political and social problems.
In this series, there are no longer any countries, only districts which are ruled by the Capitol. Set in some not so distant future, children from each district are sent to fight to the death in a forest-like arena filled with obstacles to harm the contestants physically and mentality, making them vulnerable for other tributes. The point of these annual games is so that the Capitol has more control over the people and their actions. The Capitol strikes fear to the citizens because they control everything in the districts. In order to declare a winner there must only be one surviving tribute. Once the winner is declared that person is tied to the Capitol, as a symbol of bravery. Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist and Peeta Mellark win the games. After that she has a closer interaction with President Snow and is able to see his intentions and lack of interest in helping the lower class. As the series progresses Katniss along with other tributes begin a revolution against the current totalitarian form of government. Their sole purpose is to appoint a leader that genuinely wants to improve each district and the lives of the working class.
Collins creates a futuristic dystopian setting in her story, Panem. Since there are no longer countries, Panem takes the place of what currently is North America. Collins got the idea for her setting from “1984 and Brave New World because of the dystopian aspects.” Both 1984 and Brave New World are set in a dystopian future where the government is quite powerful. The government uses its power for their own personal benefits. Due to her influences, she also shapes the technology in the book around the same advanced ideas, therefore giving The Hunger Games a science fiction foundation. For example, for the games they are placed in a dome-like arena that has a force field surrounding it to keep the tributes inside. They are impermeable which means they withstand a large amount of abuse. This is futuristic because as of today, there is no force field of that size. Another piece of technology is the high speed trains which are used to get the tributes to different places as fast as possible. As it’s mentioned in the first book,
This quote comes to prove that the technology they have in the movie is advanced since a train today can only travel to 150 mph, just about half the speed of the other train.
The dome in the arena and the High speed train
The Political message of the series is that people should constantly be involved in their government, and if they are not allowed to make decisions they should stand up against the injustices. This idea can be interpreted by Political Science majors and overall viewers. Although the political message is not too direct it’s clear that Collins’s goal is to make the readers/viewers challenge the current form of their government. Meaning that if the viewers feel unsatisfied with the way their country is ruled, then perhaps they should take action to make a change. In Catching Fire (the second book/movie) it can be seen is that revolution does have its perks. Although it’s risky, if people work together and fight the current power there can be a positive outcome. Katniss gathers people from other districts that share her ideologies. They organize themselves and fight President Snow and his policies. Collins is not implying that only a revolution can make a change, but just going out to vote can make a significant adjustment. This series is open to interpretation. For example, if a person is liberal they will see the benefits of revolution, and this film could inspire them to create a movement against corrupt politicians. On the other hand, if they are conservative then they will criticize the people willing to protest, probably claiming that they only want attention or want to create instability between social groups.
A key point in the ideas Collins is trying to communicate is that the past is to be learned from, not to be copied. Although Collins does not say we should have a democratic system she subtly challenges the readers to think of a better form of ruling. Haymitch (Katniss and Peeta's coach) states in Mockingjay (the third book)
Through this quote, Collin’s isn’t advocating for democracy, but she’s insinuating that it’s better than a dictatorship. This science fiction novel is a warning about the potential future of our Democracy if we don’t get educated about how the system works. Readers are given the chance to be the change the future needs either by making informed decisions when they vote or by being the voice of the underrepresented group. This series provides a different perspective on what one individual can do to improve the world around them. The message isn’t to work toward a perfect system of government, but instead to constantly improve in areas that can benefit most of the population. The message is realistic because it sets the base that change can be done in unison if people decided they are unsatisfied with the current form of rule.
The parallelism between the U.S current Democracy and Panems form of government connects to the recent presidential elections because of the division between the nation that was created by the candidates. The wealthy voted for a business man that had similar motives as them. The working class voted for someone they believed would represent them in office. After Presidents Trump’s win liberals and conservatives are constantly arguing about Trump and how he will or will not affect the country during his term. Their form of arguing is through protest, social media or political debates. Another similarity between the two governments is that in The Hunger Games President Snow controls the media and what is shown to the public, just as Trump wants to remove freedom of press if they keep saying anything negative about him. He does not want the press to show the people his every move. Collin’s is trying to create awareness for the reader that if there is no involvement from citizens, the corrupt government and top 1% will only make decisions to benefit the economy so they can keep getting wealthy. Through this book, scholars can see that there is more to these made-up science fiction settings, instead there is a nonchalant deeper meaning. The message calls for the humanity in people of every race and social class. It communicates that caring for one another and establishing a mutually incorporating political system can make all the difference in how a country is run. Another political similarity from the movie and today is police brutality. In the book they are called peacemakers, yet they beat people causing”trouble”. We see this when Gale (Katniss childhood friend) is whipped. In present time we see police brutality constantly, it seems that anything people do is reason enough for officers to feel threatened.There are more than enough cases on police brutality in today's society. For instance, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott and Sandra Bland to just name a few. All these people were killed by Police Officers, the people we are supposed to turn to for help. This is seen in The Hunger Games too.
The social issue that is seen in the series is the gap between the wealthy and the poor class. In the books, the wealthy class are portrayed as overly consumers. For instance, despite that the poor are starving, the rich over indulge at their parties instead of giving away their food. This accurately depicts the consumerist society we currently live in because we just take and not really appreciate, let alone give back to other people. The rich choose to ignore that they are only affluent because they benefit from the lower class hard work. For instance, in a fast food restaurant, the owners have all the money because they have workers that attract clientele. In return company owners do the bare minimum for their workers knowing that most workers will not quit due to their need of income. Adding on, the rich see themselves as more important because they don’t have to be part of the games themselves. They find the games to be amusing and they watch them as if they were watching soccer, ignoring the fact that real people are being killed in front of their eyes. This proves they are privileged because the laws in the story don’t worry them since they don’t pertain to the rich people. They just close themselves off to thinking about the less fortunate. The film mirrors the privileged people in today’s society. For example, Trump is planning to build a wall and to deport all immigrants [if possible] and the wealthy class, and a large amount of Caucasians are not worried because this issue won’t affect them personally. The privileged don’t ever feel threatened and they keep living their lives, while the lower class struggles to keep their jobs, and keep from being deported.
poor currently vs. poor in the film
affluent city currently vs. affluent city in the film