Characters in the book are diverse in their societal view as 12 districts are incorporated in the country Panem where the novel is based. There are the rich and the poor based on the districts that one resides. The protagonist of the story, Katniss Everdeen is from a poor district where the majority of the people are coal miners. The characters exploit what is found in the region to create a living for themselves. Katniss visits the Capitol and is surprised at how people have lots of food. They lead lavish lifestyles at the capital while at her home district the people have no food. Her family depends on her for food thus she has to hunt illegally to get some food for them to survive. Most of the story addresses the class as the most significant societal issue in the community.
There is a balance that is created by the Capitol. It serves as a government that controls the rest of the districts as they have most of the wealth. Through services such as providing food for the children, the Capitol can primarily control the children and have them register for the hunger games. The districts are divided as they fight one another and the capitol views this as an act that entertains them. The districts lack resources, and hence they are compelled to rely on the Capitol for resources thus making the capitol all powerful and serves as a dictatorship. The American dream of making lives of the people better is evident on the Hunger Games as the societies are very lively in trying to make their livelihoods much better. They work hard to ensure that they better themselves possibly in hope to have better lives.
The urban people are lavish and always in pursuit of pleasure, by conducting extravagant events such feasts and getting anything they want instantly (Collins, 96). The urban people live for entertainment while the rural people, on the other hand, are less fortunate. The basic needs for them are very hard to satisfy as they need to work extra hard for anything. The dress cord is of low-quality clothing and feeding is a big problem for them. Power gets centralized to the rich people within the capitol who in turn control the poor districts. The rich hence makes the decisions on how the goods and services will become allocated. The capitol provides food for the poor children in the districts to protect its interest in getting viewed as caring. Hence Panem is capitalistic based on Marxist theory.
There is economic exploitation in that the Capitol forbid the poor districts from hunting in the woods as a source of livelihood. The poor have to work according to the terms set by the Capitalists so that they can get some money and food to survive by on a daily basis. Money plays a big role in determining the lifestyle and power of the individuals in the book. The Capitol is in charge of most of Panem’s riches, and this money gives them control over all other districts. They primarily decide the fate of the poor who have no access to enough money to sustain themselves. The children of the poor are furthermore willing to risk their lives to the game so that they can receive additional portions of food. The book affirms the social order it depicts. It clearly explains the disparity that exists within the capitalistic society.
The protagonist is a symbol of the struggle within the work. She is used to show that the struggle she undergoes is an illustration of the people that live in the districts. Her struggle within the hunger games gets used to portray the challenges of the larger population within the districts. Her victory is symbolic to the people that they can overcome the Capitol oppression and beat the odds to emerge victorious (Collins, 26). Coriolanus Snow, the president of Panem is at the center of power as he is the driving force of the hunger games. He enforces the hunger games to act as a reminder to the people that the capital has the power. He ensures that the districts are torn from the hunger games so as not to rebel in unison. The system of governance is dictatorial as the districts have no option but to follow the order of participating in the hunger games.
The book is quite interactive and focuses on the lives of the characters exploiting the events of the characters to create a story. I felt gloomy after reading the book. This gloomy feeling is because I became saddened by the situation and the conditions the people lived. The Capitol was all that mattered, and the lives of people there were very nice, living at the expense of the poor people who lived terrible lives.
When Primrose Everdeen is selected for the hunger games to represent female of district 12, I concluded that her sister Katniss would do something about the situation. Katniss was hoping her sister was not selected saying that she was in the draw for the first time meaning she would be lucky. On my mind I was suggesting that she will help her escape or stand in for her, this she did by volunteering to stand in for her sister. Since Primrose was 12 years I concluded that she was not going to survive the games and judging from her sister’s behavior, Katniss would not let her participate (Collins, 21).
The speaker is very bitter and determined on survival. When she talks about the starvation that had filled district 12, she is sad saying it. She seems to be bitter when justifying what has been stated that people die of disease rather than the fact of starvation. As the story starts, I did not put much thought into the social inequality that existed. I understood the rich were exploiting the poor in the society but not to a severe extent. I began to understand how deeply rooted social oppression was in that society when I realized that the minority had to kill each other in the hunger games to earn a position in the society and gain more income and a better life for their families. I also realized that the rich did not care for the poor as they enjoyed watching them kill each other. I have gone through the work three times, each instance I read the story; I tend to appreciate it more on the president’s actions. Though his actions are not very pleasing, he tries to create a self-sustaining environment.
Conclusively, the book is a true depiction of the struggles that poor individuals go through in the expense of the rich. Social inequality is a major societal problem that needs to be addressed to ensure that all individuals receive equal opportunities and treatment in life.
Work Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008.
