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 then the story of Katniss Everdeen and the rebellion she leads the nation of Panem in against the capital. It is the story of what many people fear the future to bring us. It shows that we all fear things to come in the future and that there is a very real possibility that they will come true.
The first place I saw modern day problems reflected into 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 that the distracts were assigned. The distract Katniss lives in is 12. In 12 the only job is coal mining because distract 12 exports coal. The idea of being limited not by how smart you are or how hard you are willing to work but where you live, is scary to me. The fact that women are destined to be house wives to coal miners and that that is all they will ever be able to do is terrible, upsetting and just flat out wrong. This is not a big problem in America though I think some kids that grow up in bad neighborhoods feel like that can not do anything or be someone. In many third world countries women are treated like they are only good for having babies and like in many poor distracts of Panem do not receive the chance to make a future for themselves.
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 they held an annual Hunger Games, where a boy and girl were selected from each distracts and put in an arena to fight to the death. The one left sanding would win the game and great wealth for their district. Something that is extremely scary is the idea that the government would kill teenagers and children so that they could make a point and scare people into listening to them. Though there is no one being killed to scare people in America there is many other places and our government does other things to scare us into acting the way they want.
The last place that I noticed modern day problems reflected into the future was when I learned that Panem is only 12 districts because the rest of the ruins of what used to be known as North America is mostly toxic waste land or land that has been mined and dug into for coal and oil that it is full of holes and totally worthless. With all the nuclear development and factories producing toxic fluids and gases almost two thirds of America and 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 make things and dump them into our oceans and parts of land polluting our wildlife and soon poisoning ourselves.
The book is more then a story that keeps you interested. It is like seeing what the future has in store for us if we do not limit the power for people, make people know that no matter where the come from or who their parents were they can achieve anything and that not changing the way we treat our environment is going to get back at us soon.
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