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Panem Vs America Essay

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The Hunger Games by Susan Collins is a slap in the face for society, essentially a wakeup call. Katniss Everdeen is a sixteen year old girl that volunteers as tribute for Prim, her little sister and is the focus of The Hunger Games. The book is set in Panem a dystopian society with twelve districts and an over ruling power, the Capitol. The Capitol has created a punishment for a rebellion that occurs 74 years earlier, called the reaping. Every year there is a reaping, the reaping requires each of the twelve districts to gather and watch as two of their children are picked to compete in the most dangerous game; the hunger games. Each child sent is in a competition for their life, one will survive. After the reaping the tributes are sent to the Capitol where they are introduced to the public. The tributes are treated like celebrities, interview and forced to play their best angle to the media. See any similarities between 21st century America and the world Katniss lives in? Panem and …show more content…

America is well on its way to being the next Panem. One of the first similarities between Panem and America is that we as Americans are so incredibly self-centered and desensitized to the world around us. After Katniss returns to the Capitol from the arena she observes that her prep team is brimming with selfishness. “Even though they are rattling on about the Games, it’s all about where they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific event occurred. ‘I was in bed!’ ‘I just had my eyebrows dyed!’ ‘I swear I nearly fainted!’ Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena” (354). Katniss’ prep team is the epitome of self-centeredness, “I, I, I”, they are blinded by their own

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