Final Responce to the Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a dystopia that has magnified modern day issues. The Hunger Games is so much more than the story of Katniss Everdeen and the rebellion she leads the nation of Panem in against the capital. The story projects what many people fear the future may bring us. It shows that we all fear things to come in the future and confronts us with the very real possibility that these things could happen.

The first place I saw modern day problems reflected in the book was when I found out that people that were born in certain districts could not move out of them and had to do the job assigned to that district. Katniss, the main female character, lives in District 12. In District 12, the only job is coal mining because District 12 exports coal. The idea of being limited not by how smart you are or how hard you are willing to work but by where you live is scary to me. The fact that women are destined to be housewives to coal miners and that that is all that they will ever be able to do is terrible, upsetting and just flat out wrong. Although defining people just by where they live is not a very big problem in America, I think that the issue of limiting or labeling people is magnified in this book. For example, I think some kids that grow up in bad neighborhoods may feel like they cannot do anything or be anyone. In many third world countries, women are treated poorly. Similarly in many of the poor districts of Panem women can not make a future for themselves and oppressed people have no future.

The next place I noticed modern day problems magnified in the book was when I learned that to keep the people of Panem in check the government holds annual Hunger Games, where they select a boy and girl from each districts and put them all in an arena to fight to the death. The last person left standing wins the game and great wealth for their district. I find it extremely scary to imagine a government that would kill teenagers and children so that they could make a point and scare people into listening to them. The Hunger Games are an extreme version of modern Capitol Punishment.

The last place that I noticed modern day problems reflected into the future was when I learned that Panem, a futuristic North America, is only 12 districts. Panem is only 12 districts because the rest of what used to be known as North America is mostly toxic wasteland or land that is unable to sustain life because it has been dug into and mined for fossil fuels and stripped of its resources, rendering it totally worthless. With all the nuclear development and factories producing toxic fluids and gases, almost two thirds of America were unable to sustain any form of life. This is something that scares me the most because we are completely aware of the consequences of toxic, nuclear and radioactive wastes, yet we continue to use nuclear wastes and fossil fuels and do not even properly dispose of them. We dump them into our oceans and parts of land polluting our wildlife and soon poisoning ourselves.

The Hunger Games is more then a story that keeps you interested. It makes you wonder what the future has in store for us if we do not make sure the government stays in balance, treat people fairly and humanely (regardless of their background), encourage people to achieve their potential and become more conscience about how the way we live affects our environment.