The Detrimental Effects Of Governmental Power In 'The Hunger Games'

Su YiFei
Mr. Bacon
ENG3U
10 April 2015
The Detrimental Effects of Governmental Power in The Hunger Games It is easy to see the detrimental effects of governmental power in the novel The Hunger Games. The government has great power and no one can balance it. The abuse of political power by the government has lead to totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is being heavily abused in the country as the distribution of ruling power between the capitol and the Districts are extremely uneven. As we can see from the novel, Panem is under controlled the capitol, of which the entire country is governed by problematic rules. Different rules and laws are enforced in the country which favor only
What the government does are not of benefit their people but to feather their own nest. Therefore people have bad quality of life under the government control. First of all, the government is irresponsible to the well-being of their people, law being illogical, people can do nothing but only to break them to get things they need. For example, Katniss has to hunt illegally in the wood outside the District 12 and trade her quarries at black market since she has to feed her family to keep them alive. Everyone has his or her right to being alive which the illogical law goes against. In addition, it is known that the government does has its responsibility to help the poor, but the capitol gets lots of wealth from poor Districts. This action makes the poor even do not have enough food to eat. For actually, it is found that sick people are easy to be controlled doing what the government want them to do. The government then creates people’s dependence base on this, like the saying goes:”You do not bite the hand that feed you.” Secondly, the blame of the society
Whether a decision is right or wrong, it will become the mainstream as long as the decision is supported by the government. The most obvious thing example which can exemplified this is the clothing style of the people living in the capitol. The clothing that they wear goes against human nature and makes them look not like human being. When Katniss sees the capitol people the first time, she sees that “oddly dressed people with bizarre hair and painted faces” (59).It is known that the government puts a serious gap in wealth between the poor and the rich. The gap makes people who live in different kinds of life situations have different understandings of dressing. It seems that the poor who live in the Districts do not even have enough food to eat, while the rich have enough extra money to dress themselves up strangely the way of which goes against human nature. However, the distortion of thinking is more serious than the distortion of the way of dressing. Having inhumane way of thinking happens too ordinarily and no one thinks what they do is evil anymore because they are supported by the law. For example, no one in the capitol wants to know Avox, someone who have being committed a crime and get his or her tongue cut. The Avox should not be talked with “unless it is to give an order” (78).No one shows their sympathy towards the poor Avox. The thinking which the government has