Marxist Critique of The Hunger Games
One of the strongest themes in The Hunger Games is its condemnation of imperialism, which is represented by the Capitol of Panem. Throughout its pages, the novel invites readers to denounce the oppressive socioeconomic forces and repressive ideologies of the Capitol and its representatives. The Hunger Games certainly has a Marxist agenda as it reveals the crippling effects of the oppression of the people by the elite few. Citizens of the Capitol are living lives of luxury and ease while the hard-working and impoverished citizens of the other districts struggle to get by. These are “men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces” (Collins 4). They are the perfect representation of the Marxist proletariat, “the majority of the global population who live in substandard conditions and who have always performed the manual labor that fills the coffers of the rich” (Tyson 54). They have lost hope and merely toil under the domination of the privileged elite, the bourgeoisie who control the world’s natural, economic, and human resources. This domination pervades every aspect of their lives – they are constantly watched by “Peacekeepers” who ensure that there is no hint of rebellion among the people. Katniss and her best friend Gale (a boy who also lost his father at a young age) have nothing but disdain for the Orwellian “big brother” intrusiveness of the Capitol. “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety,” Katniss mutters. Then she glances quickly over her shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you” (Collins 4). ...
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...home, they are seen as mere entertainment. The value of human life is directly equal to the amount of wealth and influence one has. After the games, Katniss hears the reactions from the citizens of the Capitol as she recuperates, and she is sickened by their view: It’s funny, because even though they’re rattling on about the Games, it’s all about where they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific event occurred. “I was still in bed!” “I had just had my eyebrows dyed!” “I swear I nearly fainted!” Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena” (353). Ultimately, the Games are a stark reminder to the citizens that they are not autonomous, but are completely controlled by the Capitol. Peeta, the other tribute from District 12, longs to break out of this repressive ideology, but Katniss shoots him down: “‘Only I keep wishing I
Collins has embedded a very strong moral behind her writings, which she has made quite clear through the morals of Panem and its Capitol. The Hunger Games could be described as a massive, national television show with a little – well, big – twist. Like reality television in our day and age, it is extremely popular with plenty of drama; except, perhaps the drama is a little too dramatic, involving the brutal murder of tributes and the literal back-stabbing of fellow ‘allies’. Essentially, the Hunger Games is a large sport and source of entertainment, where the tributes must face atrocious perils such as fireballs, mutated, dogs, along with tracker-jackers – wasps genetically modified to create hallucinations and kill with merely a few painful stings. Although this is a bit too extreme for our reality television, there are still many similarities.
The basic summary of The Hunger Games starts with Katniss, the main character, to go hunt with Gale, her friend. Every year the annual Hunger Games is held where two people from each district will fight for their life in the arena until there is only one person left alive. Katniss’s little sister, Prim is chosen, but not until Katniss volunteers to take her place and fight in the Hunger Games. Throughout the Hunger Games, Peeta makes alliances the Careers to protect Katniss. Shortly after, Katniss makes an alliance with Rue, but she got killed. Then, an announcement is made that two tributes from the same district can win. This causes Katniss to team up with Peeta, the tribute from the same district as her, but Peeta got seriously injured from Cato. Peeta’s leg is getting an infection and this may kill him . Though, Katniss and Peeta are working together to survive, but then there is the feast, where you can retrieve the the most essential item each district needs to live. Instantly Katniss knows that is where she can get Peeta’s medicine!
Complete governmental control develops as an apparent theme of both 1984 and The Hunger Games. 1984 uses the concept of big brother for the sole purpose of instilling a dependence on the government for every aspect in the citizens’ lives. Similarly, the capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games censors information from the people so that any idea of revolution will be instantaneously
In a not-too-distant, some 74 years, into the future the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games; these children are referred to as tributes (Collins, 2008). The Games are meant to be viewed as entertainment, but every citizen knows their purpose, as brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts. The televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eradicate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. The main character throughout the series is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen.
Every year, 24 "tributes" are chosen to participate in "The Hunger Games"; a televised ultimate death match of teenagers. There are twelve districts, (like states) that the "tributes" are chosen from. Two from each district, a boy and a girl, ageing between twelve and eighteen. Katniss Everdeen, our main character, is believed to be strong, fierce, and loving. She makes the ultimate sacrifice-volunteering her life in the Hunger Games- in place of her younger sister, Primrose Everdeen. Chosen alongside her in her district, Peeta Mellark is a handsome, caring intelligent, artistic fellow. You also have the other 22 "tributes", from the other eleven districts, participating in the 75...
In our Society when you don't follow the rules, you become an outcast to the rest of the society. Suzanne Collins’ novel series, The Hunger Games criticizes our society and its demands for people of specific genders to act in certain ways and become certain things. Stereotypes concerning gender are prevalent in our society and all over the world. However, The Hunger Games gives a very refreshing tone of “mockery” to these stereotypes. Katniss Everdeen isn’t your typical 16 year old girl, and neither is Peeta Mellark a typical 16 year old boy, especially when they are fighting everyday just to survive. The Hunger Games is a work of social commentary, used to convince us that there can’t and shouldn’t be any defined “roles” based on gender. A mixture of “stereo-typical” gender roles within a person and their actions is what people need just to survive in our world that is changing every day.
The residents of the districts in The Hunger Games are cruelly treated by the ruling Capitol. In the poorest districts, their labor as miners (District 12) or farmers (District 11) is exploited for the good of the rich while they slowly starve or are injured or killed by their dangerous work. This is very clearly a tale of capitalism run amok: the wealth disparity between the rich (the Capitol), the poor (most of the districts), and the “middle class” (the districts with Career tributes, 1 and 2) mirrors that of contemporary American society. Katniss is a vocal critic of this structure throughout the novel, often thinking things like “What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, th...
The Hunger Games- “a futuristic dystopian society [Panem] where an overpowering government controls the lives and resources in twelve different districts” (The Hunger Games). The overpowering government lives in the Capitol of Panem and from there controls the citizens of the twelve districts through propaganda and other means. The Capitol has all of the economic and political power in Panem; they have complete control. The leader of the capitol is the harsh, dictator-like figure, President Snow. President Snow’s methods for keeping order in the districts are through Peacekeepers and the annual Hunger Games. The Peacekeepers are an army that monitors each district. Any sign of rebellion, and the Peacekeepers take care of it, usually by killing the rebel in some way. The annual Hunger Games are used to remind all of the citizens of Panem about the uprising in the now obliterated District 13. The Hunger Games, in a way, brainwashes all of the citizens, but a select few such as Katniss Everdeen, to believe that an uprising would be horrible and is not necessary and that the Capitol does what is best for all of the citizens. In
The Hunger Games do not provide a realistic glimpse into the lives of the tributes. The Capitol takes great pride with appearances and fashion, and this is reflected through the tributes. Every year the tributes are groomed and pampered by the Capitol’s chosen stylists for the Games in order for the tributes to be admired by the people of Panem before entering the arena. Katniss acknowledges this when she says, “What do these people do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to row in and die for entertainment” (Collins, Hunger 65). The Games show a glamorized type of reality in order to entertain Panem. The tributes cannot win on strength and brutality alone; they must win the hearts of sponsors and citizens of the Capitol. The tributes transform in to celebrities to win the hearts of citizens before being killed on live television. Mary Matos in her article “Media in the Hunger Games”, she states that throughout the Hunger Games trilogy Katniss alternates between that awareness, understanding, and manipulation of the media (Matos 4). While Katniss is alternating between all of these she will never out of the media itself. Being a tribute she will always be juggling herself between these three
Access to food draws a thin line between the privileged and the poor. In Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games, food has a massive impact on the different characters from the different locations. Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist, lives in the poorest district in Panem – District 12. Each different district has a specialty that they use to provide for the Capitol; District 12’s specialty is coal mining. Author Despail explains the districts in a way that makes it easier to understand by stating that “[e]ach outlying district in Panem forms an identity around not only the products the district is known for but also the ways in which its citizens cope with their lack of food” (70). Because of this, many people in District 12 have a tough time
In The Hunger Games, the inequality between the rich and the poor is the biggest theme presented in the book. Throughout the book, Katniss mentions that starvation is common in District 12, and she has often gone hunting illegally in the woods for food for her family. This is an example of how the rich and the poor are separated. Wealth is only centralized in the hands of the rich, while the poor are left to starve, leaving disparity. The best examples of the inequality between the rich and the poor is seen in the tessera system, and the way the tributes are selected for the games. In the novel, they have what is called “the reaping”, which is the lottery at which they choose the tributes for the games. It is said in the book that the poor is more likely to be picked than the rich are. In the tessera system, children
The movie The Hunger Games, originally based on a book by Suzanne Collins, is about a place called Panem, which is ruled by the Capitol and has 12 districts within it. These 12 districts are separated founded on their economic statuses, meaning the higher the district, the more impoverished the residents are. There are 2 tributes that are chosen to participate, forcibly, in The Hunger Games each year. Each competitor is instructed to eliminate one another in order to survive and come out on top. There is only one tribute allowed to come out of the arena alive. Katniss lives in District 12, which is the most impoverished district of them all, and she volunteers as tribute in “the Reaping” when her sister is chosen to participate. She and the other tribute from her district, Peeta, make it into the arena with the hopes that one of them comes out the winner and above all else, alive (Ross, 2012). I will refrain from going any further just in case you have not read the book or have not seen the movie. In terms of soci...
But in this movie, a person in charge picks a girl and a boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen out of a lottery from each district to represent their district and fight to death. The children, who are chosen, are trained for a week and then sent to and outdoor arena. In the movie, the capitol shows a video explaining the tradition, the rules of the game and how it must be followed no matter what. The characters in this movie have to orient themselves in order to stay safe from the capitol; they also need to follow all the rules provided in order to live. In the story, Prim Everdeen was chosen as of the children to represent the district but her sister Katniss Everdeen volunteered instead to save her sister. After the children are chosen, they are placed in an arena that is controlled by the people who invented the game with advanced technology. The game is being broadcasted all over the world as a reality show, showing the kids of each district killing each other and how they live. The children were almost treated like animals, they were out in a forest setting that is made with the technology, and having to survive off the environment they were given. They were rewarded with food or survival kit each time they kill each other. This portrays exploiting their tradition as entertainment and not seeing the cruelty of
The Hunger Games that follows, the term that defines a dystopian fiction. One main belief that defines Dystopian society is the development into a “hierarchical society” (“Dystopia”). A hierarchical society plays a big part in the story that outline the whole plot. For example, Capitol is wealthier than all the districts. Some districts are more privileged than others. The Careers, being tributes from districts one to three, are prepared and trained for years before the games. However, this is illegal, but because of the support towards District two from the Capitol, they are let off, along with District one and District four, the other richer districts. In this cas...
The main character, Katniss, volunteers as tribute for her district to save her sister from having to be tribute. Upon arriving in the Capitol for the games, she sees just how vast the gap between the Capitol and districts are. To fight against this class struggle, she begins to revolt. At first this comes in the form of small things, like shooting an arrow at a pig feast of Capitol higher-ups and refusing to kill her friend in the games, resulting in the first ever co-victors of the Hunger Games. Katniss’ actions soon lead to full blown rebellion in the districts, starting a revolutionary war between them and the Capitol. At one point Katniss remarks: “My ongoing struggle against the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side.” (Catching Fire 90). In true Marxist fashion the working class needed to use a violent revolution to confront the class struggle against the ruling