The Hunger Games

Could You Survive? What would you do if your government forced you to get in an arena with 23 other kids for the sole purpose of you killing all the others? The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is about a girl, Katniss, takes her sisters place in the games. She goes in and fights for her life and ultimately succeeds and returns home. In the novel, The Hunger Games, themes of government control and love are discussed, and these themes are also present in our modern day world. One theme that really stands out throughout The Hunger Games is government control. In the novel, the Capitol controls everything they do. They make the citizens watch the 24 kids get put in the arena and kill each other until one victor emerges. That is not all that they control. If someone disobeys or rebels against the Capitol, then the Capitol turns them into Avoxes. This means they take the rebels as slaves and cut off their tongues so they cannot talk. “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” (18). The theme of government control is present in this quote. This quote shows that the Capitol has complete control over all the districts and that the citizens are too terrified to rebel against them because they know they would be punished. In today’s society, we do not have much government control compared to the amount in the novel. We do have some, but our government does not dictate how we live our daily lives and what we spend our day doing. “Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. ‘Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there is nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen’” (18-19). This quote proves that the Capitol will destroy them if they try to rebel against them. Another very important theme in The Hunger Games is love. In this novel, there are many love