The Hunger Games: Opposing Social Classes

Dystopian films and books have become popular over the past few years. These tend to reflect the way in which society could possibly soon turn if expecting extremes. Dystopian literature and media also tend to have utopian elements as well. While the societies in these works are strict and controlling, they do offer something that our society could possibly benefit from. Divergent has this element. The population is broken up into five factions that represent the different types of people in society and separate those who would fight easily due to their personal morals. The Hunger Games on the other hand (when modern society crumbled) they punished their citizens for fighting the government. While yes there was a chance for riches in the Hunger Games, it took risking your life to get it. In addition, if one did win the Hunger Games they would have an extremely easy life due to riches and a free luxury house. Divergent does not have this part, as its utopian aspect is the fact different ideals are separated from each other. Utopian literature is a reflection that is a perceived direction society may go. In these stories, mirrors are a device used to symbolically state the universe of the film is a reflection not a reality.

Marxism is a theory that analyses social hierarchy and class struggle though the proletariats (lower class) and the

The Hunger Games, the movie, was adapted from the popular young adult novel by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is sometimes described as another cliche love story for which the young adult genre is infamous. Despite appearances, The Hunger Games illustrates a complex and creative dystopian world with a much deeper underlying message, including topics such as, politics, history, and celebrity worship. The setting appears to be a futuristic version of America. This future America is very classist, and the tyrannical government is sure to keep the classes divided by heavily oppressing the working class. The working class is divided into twelve districts, which used to be thirteen districts until the thirteenth district was annihilated as a result of its uprising. In response to the thirteenth district’s resistance, the President created a game called “The Hunger Games” in an effort to instill obedience in the remaining twelve districts. Through the course of the movie, we learn that “The Hunger Games” are not only a mechanism to force obedience on the working class, but also to serve as entertainment for the elite society who live in the Capitol. The Games require 24 randomly selected children from the working class districts to fight to the death in an elaborately staged battle, all of which is filmed and broadcasted to the entire nation, working class and elite alike. Thesis: The Hunger Games, the movie, has a hauntingly feasible storyline and clear references to real

The book “Lord Of The Flies” is about a plane crashing onto an Island and no adult supervision left for the group young boys left behind. Once all of the boys that were scattered along the island gathered, they realized that they were left on there own and can do whatever they want to. The boys then created a structured civilization that doesn't quite strive throughout their time there. In the novel, “Lord Of The Flies” written by William Golding the novel supports philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ theory of the “Ruthless Savage” because the boys are portrayed as bullies and careless. The movie “The Hunger Games” shows several of the same qualities as the novel “Lord Of The Flies”.

The reason for the Hunger Games is to remind all the Districts of what had happened to District 13 whom decided to rebel against the capitol. They hold a "reaping" every year and they send them to

Marxism is a theory based on “a materialist interpretation of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation” (Wikipedia, 2017) by philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism focuses on social contradictions and the struggle between socioeconomic classes, which are proletariat, who are the poor people and the working class; and bourgeoisie, the rich people that control the means of production. Marxist theory states that the only way to eliminate the differences between both classes is a violent revolution that will lead to a communist society.

The Hunger Game film is an emotional series that resemble a severe caste system setting. The plot showcases a transformation of an unfortunate girl becoming a beacon of hope for the rebellion. By doing this, the movie revolves around three themes which are backed by theories and models in sociology which include opportunity, explained by the Status Theory, conflict, explained by Karl Max and Max Weber, and interaction, represented by the Dramaturgical Model.

Marxist Theory focuses on the idea that whoever controls the means of production in a

It is not said but possibly assumed that this was done to keep the district from rising up together. In order for the government to justify the Hunger Games, it keeps its minor districts in a constant state or poverty, requiring the children to take food rations in return for having their name entered in the lottery. Each ration counts your name once and if your name is called, you must enter the Games and fight your fellow district members to the death (2008). These acts while claiming they promote courage, honor, and determination in its citizens and participants do nothing more but enforce the submissiveness and loyalty of the society. Through both of these things, the American values of activity and work and efficiency and practicality (2003) are the only ones that survive to our grandchildren’s generation. That is unless you find racism and group superiority to be a valid type of value. It does not seem that in any state that education, democracy, equality, progress, or freedom (2003) are even thought of let alone key to the running of the society.

The Hunger Games is about a teenager named Katniss Everdeen. She lives in a place called Panem. In Panem, there’s the capitol and 12 districts. The president and Capitol citizens live in the capitol. All the districts contribute something to the capitol like food, or power, and in return, the capitol gives the district's security. Katniss lives in district 12. District 12 provides coal but is also the poorest district. Everyone lives off of small animals they can catch. In order to survive, Katniss hunts on illegal land to provide for her mom and her sister, Prim. Every year the Capitol holds an event called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is were two tributes from each district come to an arena and

The Hunger Games promotes the idea of a total government control. The Capitol controls everything that the twelve districts do. The world of Panem is divided into 12 districts where each district has its own role to fulfill from luxury to coal mining. "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" (Collins 18). This shows that the districts all pay a yearly sacrifice to the Capitol in the form of tributes. Another of showing that the Games is a dystopian society is that any evidence of an act of rebellion will result in the government having to kill anyone who gets in their way. "Look how he take your children and sacrifice them 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 13" (18).

“Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve defeated the thirteenth obliterate” (Collins 18). The Capitol used their power and technology they had to defeat the districts, soon after the Capitol created the Hunger Games in order to take control of the districts and punish them for their rebellion.

For thousands of years, governments have been oppressing their people. Although their reasons for doing so may have been different, the outcomes were all the same: a revolt of the people. There are many examples of this throughout history, such as in the French Revolution and the American Revolution. The Hunger Games, a tale of a dystopian society filled with maltreatment by “The Capitol,” displays the path to insurrection triggered by the mounting cases of misery brought on by their government, that was attacking lower classes of people. By using common themes of oppression and rebellion found throughout history, The Hunger Games is a striking example of how repression by government will eventually lead to a revolt of the people.

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is set in a dystopian country called Panem. This country is split up into twelve districts, and the districts are lead by the Capitol. Annually, the Capitol forces children of the districts to fight in the Hunger Games until only one child is left alive. The Capitol uses the games to show their power and to discourage the people of Panem to start another war. The games are very entertaining to the people of the Capitol, and the whole country is required to watch on television. Even though this seems unusual to enjoy watching children fight to their death, this idea has been around for thousands of years.

We can first examine The Hunger Games with a Marxist lens by breaking down the presence of the base and the superstructure. The base consists of the forces of production, the raw materials, tools, and technology; and the relations of products, the workers and their skills (Storey 61). The base is demonstrated in The Hunger Games via the presence of the