Preview

Sociology of "Hunger Games"

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1705 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sociology of "Hunger Games"
Sociology of “Hunger Games”
By. Tom ************
Soc 101
11/17/13

Introduction
The nation of Panem has risen out of the ravaged ruins of what was once known as North America. 74 years ago, the poverty-stricken districts of Panem rebelled against the wealthy, controlling the Capitol. After its crushing victory, the Capitol devised the Hunger Games as an annual reminder to the twelve districts of its authority, and as continuing punishment for the rebellion. Every year, each district must hold a raffle (known as the "reaping") to choose one boy and one girl (ranging from age 12–18) to participate in the Hunger Games, a competition in which each of the twenty-four contestants (known as "tributes") fight to the death in a televised arena until only one is left alive.
This is the story of the 74th Hunger Games and at the center of it is Katniss Everdeen, a resident of the poorest of all the districts, District 12. During "The Reaping", the "Tribute" selection comes to pass and is where Katniss ultimately volunteers to fight after her sister 's name is drawn from the fish bowl. Her male counterpart is the baker 's son, Peeta Melark. Per the rules, only one or neither of these two combatants will ever return to District 12 alive. "The Hunger Games" are treated as just that, games, they are televised in the Capitol and all 12 Districts as people look on, the members of the Capitol cheering along the way and members of each District looking on in sadness as their children are murdered for the satisfaction of the oppressive government. After the tributes are selected they are taken by train to the Capitol. On the train and in the capitol you can see the apparent culture shock in the face of the 2 district 12 contestants. Coming from the poorest district modeled after the coal mining era, where most people live in absolute poverty Peeta and Katniss are taken back by the surplus of luxury and wealth exhibited by the Capitol.



References: 1. Smith,J. (April 18, 2012). Five Lessons in Human Goodness from “The Hunger Games”. Retrieved (Nov 15, 2013). From http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_lessons_in_human_goodness_from_the_hunger_games 2. Schofelt,C. & Walsh, D.(March 28, 2012). Why does The Hunger Games strike a chord?. Retrieved (Nov 15, 2013) From http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/03/game-m28.html 3. Ebert, R. (March 20, 2012). The Hunger Games Review. Retrieved(Nov 15, 2013) From http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-hunger-games-2012 4. Travers, P.(March 21, 2012) The Hunger Games Review. Retrieved(Nov 15, 2013) From http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-hunger-games-20120321

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Have you ever heard the game that you need to fight for life? The game is called Hunger Games, from every districts one male and female from the age 12-18, they get picked by draw lots and you can also volunteers for somebody. After you get picked up, you go to the Capitol and fighting for life and everyone is watching you until the one survivor left. On the game, there is going to be 24 tributes from 12 districts, so this is the hunger games and the story will start.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Katniss Everdeen: Summary

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At the reaping, the mayor gave a speech about how the government in North America fell and the country of Panem took over. There was a war between the Capitol and the districts, and the Capitol won. To remind the districts not to rebel, the Capitol created the Hunger Games. Every year, two tributes (one girl and one boy) from each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight to the death in an arena and only one person can win. The mayor then introduced Haymitch, District 12's only living Hunger…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Primrose Everdeen

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages

    From each district picks boy and a girl from the ages of twelve through sixteen to be their tributes, unless someone else volunteers in their place. The tributes are taken to the Capitol and get prepared for the Hunger Games, all the tributes are put in an arena and fight to the death until only one remains and they're named the victor. The Capitol came up with this to punish the twelve districts and remind them about what happened to District Thirteen when they tried to rebel. Prim is picked to be a tribute in the seventy fourth annual Hunger games but, then Katniss volunteers in her place to save her life and the other tribute is Peeta. On the train to the Capitol the tributes get to know the victor Haymitch and their escort Effie while experiencing luxuries they've never known before. Katniss meets Cinna who's’ completely different from the rest of the Capitol because he keeps all his natural features and wears simple clothing. Katniss and Peeta are told to appear as if they can’t be separated and they can’t show any talents. All twenty four teens are raised up to the arena in circle in the middle is a pile of weapons and supplies, Haymitch warned Katniss not to into the middle because it would be a bloodbath. She doesn’t listen and grabs a backpack, which almost gets her killed. Afterward she runs as far as she can away from the others and tries find water. Later she goes to sleep in a tree, the first night she spots a group of rich tributes that she calls the Careers and is shocked that Peeta is one of them. Soon they have her surrounded and she's in a tree, Rue saves her, and she gets a bow. She and Rue make a plan to destroy the supplies that the Carreers have which succeeds but, Rue gets speared to death. The rules have changed saying that instead of…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Teen Dystopia: Should we be worried about what Generation Z is reading?, the author, Sophie Boyer debates whether The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a suitable book for our generation to read. Through the discussion of both sides of the story, in the end, the author concludes that The Hunger Games is a “well-constructed allegory that reflects a more realistic portrayal of our world” and “reminds the reader to never take anything for granted.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross, is linked to the Roman gladiator combats. This is shown through the use of Panem audience experience being alluded to the audience experience of Roman upper and lower class at the gladiatorial games, comparing the Hunger Games arena to the Roman Colosseum and contrasting the tributes to the Roman gladiators.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Hunger Games which are loved by the top 2 districts are a practically a death match between 24 children. President Snow gathers 2 tributes from each district (one boy and one girl) and publicly displays them as heroes of the district, whereas in their views if you are not in the first 2 districts you are being sent to die. As Katniss says about her own district “District…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s not surprising that “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins contains many situations that cause the reader to step back and question the morality and ethical issues surrounding the entire story. Likewise, the main characters echo our own questions by asking themselves similar things when faced with moral dilemmas. A character that shows a strong ethical approach to the games is supporting character Peeta Mellark. What it takes to “win” the hunger games goes beyond just killing people.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Hunger Games takes place in a society that is strictly controlled by its government leaders, much like Imperial Rome. "Romans regularly organized fights to the death between hundreds of gladiators, the mass execution of unarmed criminals, and the indiscriminate slaughter of domestic and wild animals." (Hopkins,1983). Romans were often brutal and held battles for their own entertainment. Likewise, the Capitol is similar to Imperial Rome, both are large cities that function similarly with brutality and the killing of innocents for entertainment Like the Capitol, Roman leaders often used the gladiatorial games as political opportunities. An article by The Wall Street Journal explains another way Suzanne tied in Roman history to her story. "In "The Hunger Games," the people are kept in line by hunger and entertainment. The privileged folks in the Capitol get both "bread and circuses"—the phrase comes from the Roman satirist Juvenal. The Latin is "Panem et circenses," and Panem is the name that Ms. Collins purposefully gives the country where her story is set." (Strauss, 2014). Not only did the Capitol use hunger and entertainment to manipulate the people of the other districts, they also used the Hunger Games to control the citizens of Panem. The Hunger Games themselves are also similar to Rome's gladiatorial games, as well as the sacrifices that were selected in Theseus and the Minotaur. King…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Distorted body image, intense fear of gaining weight, and refusal to eat anything that will jeopardize current weight these are the thoughts in the minds of young women and girls today. Being showed images of perfect, fit women and wanting to be the same way. Everyday being told that if they don’t look a certain way or are a certain way size they won’t be accepted. With shows like America’s Next top Model and images from magazines like Vogue not helping to show them that these are incorrect ways of viewing themselves. In today’s media people are being showed ideas and images of volience, sexual promiscuity, and drugs to be good. Never knowing the true negative affects they have on society today. Collins in her novel The Hunger Games successfully portrays the negative affects the media and entertainment is having on society and its future.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ book, The Hunger Games, the viewer in placed into a dystopian world with main characters, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Their story is set in the country of Panem, leading up the the 74th annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an event in which one male and one female “tribute” are chosen from each of the twelve districts and put into an arena where they will fight to the death until the last fighter can be crowned victor. Katniss and Peeta both come from district twelve, which is the poorest of the districts as their population is made up of coal miners. The capital is where the most wealthy live as well as the tyrannical President Snow. Technology is used by the government to control the…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a fictional story based in the future about an event in which cities (districts) participate annually by the coercion of the capitol. Two representatives, or tributes, are randomly selected each year to representative their district in this dreadful event. The plot is focused on a girl in her late-teens and her battles and struggles in the annual event, which is called the Hunger Games, or just the Games. The Hunger Games are characterized as an annual celebration in the capitol and reminder to the districts of the power in which the capitol holds over the twelve districts. But to the districts, the Games represent annual sacrifices of usually two of the poorest young men and women since more food is given to poor families if their teenage children are entered multiple times in the selection. The fact that only one survives out of the twenty-four tributes selected for the Games from twelve districts lead the families of the districts to perceive the selection for the Games as the selection for sacrifice.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Through overwhelming mise en scene, plot portrayal, and exciting special effects, “The Hunger Games” has become one of the most commercially satisfying films to this day. Each element of the film has been emphasized to please a diverse audience, showing them something they expect to see, but still managing a component of surprise. Attractive actors, blood, death and beautiful costumes are only just the beginning of a variety of things placed in the film to attract almost every person stereotyped in our…

    • 3768 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reaping is a gathering that takes place in all twelve districts to choose one boy and one girl to compete in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a competition between all twelve districts. In which, the boy and girl in the same district work together to eliminate the boys and girls from a different district. The twenty-Four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena and must fight to the death. Children are eligible to be chosen when they turn twelve years old. Their names are entered once when they turn twelve, and when they turn thirteen it is entered twice. So when you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, your name goes into the pool seven times. According to Katniss Everdeen, “The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it.” The Capitol (Where the rich people live) take two kids from each district, and force them to kill one another while they all watch. This is the Capitol’s way of reminding all twelve districts how totally they are at their mercy. If any…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) focuses on the main character Katniss and her journey to revolt against the corrupt power system of her government the capitol. The ‘Hunger Games’ is a way of controlling those in the capitols power. Comparison “All I can think is how unjust the whole thing is, the Hunger Games. Why am I hopping around like some trained dog trying to please people I hate?” communicates how Katniss feels the Capitol is corrupt and there ‘hunger games’ is a way to exert there power over those they control. Like Katnisse’s viewpoint “Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy” reveals how those oppressed by the capitols power realise that their lives are controlled by the capitol and they have no option…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To conclude, The Hunger Games is a dystopian novel acting like a utopian society, which would lead you to think it was a perfect place, yet in the end it is either kill or be killed, so it is far from the perfect place. Katniss sees the games simply as a death…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics