The Hunger Games & the Indian Caste System

In the movie film The Hunger Games, the nation of Panem is a society very dissimilar to our own. This nation once began with 13 districts, until the thirteenth district chose to take action against the oppressors. They were quickly put down, the remaining 12 districts were punished and were forced to fund two participants which were known as tributes , a boy and a girl of young age to the Capitol each year to compete in the Hunger Games which is a brutal fight to the death. The winner of the huger games is then rewarded with a number of rewards, as well as their home district receives an extra amount of food for one year. The government of Panem administrates these annual “games” as a reminder

Can you imagine the feeling knowing that at anytime, a close one could be taken away. A best friend could be stolen. A family member could be killed. Even yourself could be sacrificed for nothing. Do you think that the emotions a family member may encounter, the sadness of an entire community, or even just the thought of dying, is worth it to provide a dominant government their “Hollywood ending”? Well, in the book “The Hunger Games” written by Suzanne Collins, Katniss Everdeen lives in a dystopian society where her community is divided by 13 different groups. Each year, their government randomly selects two participants from each group to play in the Hunger Games, which is a fight to the death among the other participants. In the book, Katniss’

The Hunger Games novel written by Suzanne Collins reflects significant issues in the reality world nowadays which relate to the humanity, the poverty, the violence,… It describes the issues through the characters and what happens in the story, and the most significant issue occurs throughout the novel is the gap between rich and poor people. In the beginning of the novel, Suzanne Collins describes clearly the scene of the poverty, the terrible fear of the 12-district’s villagers, in contrast to the wealthy of the Capitol’s citizens. The inequality of social classes becomes the theme of the novel because of its relation and the effects to the plots of the story. And the reason, which leads to that issue, is the policies of the dictatorship

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 The Hunger Games, portrays a society where people are treated unfairly based on factors that they cannot control. The people are born into one of 13 districts. There lives vary drastically based on where they are born. Someone born in the Capitol has a completely different life than someone born in district 12. A person born in the Capitol lives a wealthy life and is always treated with respect. On the other hand someone born in district 12 has a life of constant back breaking work. They live in poverty and struggle to survive.

Upon watching the movie “The Hunger Games” from a sociological perspective, I learned that many of the things that we have gone over in this online sociology course were incorporated heavily into what is perhaps one of my personal favorite movies of all time. Things like social status, culture, heritage, gender, and more were all used throughout the film in order to portray a realistic and believable setting for the viewer from a social perspective. Probably the most important sociological themes explored in this movie were the struggle to maintain a high ranking social status amongst surrounding humans, the pre-perceived idea of what you were and weren’t allowed to do legally speaking based on your district, and most importantly, how humans can ultimately make life or death decisions based on the value or benefit of a certain person to the group.

Ideas of sociology play a big role in people’s everyday lives. Many Books and movies consists of the basic ideas of sociology. The film series, The Hunger Games is an example of such a representative movies. The base story of the series include a society, where people are given little to no rights. This story highly relates to the ideas of sociology since it is about a society, its culture and norms. Katniss Everdeen, is the female lead of the movie who rebels for her rights.

As cited before, Panem revolves around a caste system. Residing in a caste system means that it is nearly impossible for one to move out of the social class that they were born into. The social classes in this movie include the people in power which is the Capitol, the people who live a decent life which are districts 1 and 2 because they are closest to the capital, and lastly the dirt poor which are districts 3-12. By using the extreme caste system, the plot successfully showcases the two most basic statuses which are achieved and ascribed. They are both very prevalent in Katniss. Because of her survival skills and hunting prowess, she “earns” her way into winning the Hunger Games which in turn made her a hero for district 12. This demonstrates how she achieved her status. Nevertheless, she was born poor in district 12. This status was ascribed to her. The most important status, which the second movie revolves around, is Katniss’ master status. This status is meant to dominate all other statuses. Her master status is

Reality television has differed throughout the years. At one point it was meant to be a literal depiction of everyday life. Now, reality television has changed to be more dramatic and outrageous than an average person or family’s life. The Hunger Games, in a way, depicts the lives of those who live in the poorer districts where the necessities for life are not in such abundance as in the Capitol. Although children are not forced to kill each other in the districts, there is still the struggle for one’s livelihood. That reality is depicted in the games and it seems that The Capitol takes that theme and develops it into The Hunger Games that we know and love. The Hunger Games suggests that reality television is manipulated to the point where the viewers see what the creators (game makers) want them to see.

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 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).

Their treatment and control of the poor districts can also fall under structural functionalism. Looking at each district as if they were gears in a motor, if you would remove one the system as a whole would start to fail. Looking at it from that perspective one would argue that if there was not a class system in this case a district system, who would mine coal or fish to support the capitol? This is a key question when examining the structural functionalism of the “Hunger Games”. Since the rich elitists of the capitol lack the ability of self-sustainment the poor serve a purpose, and without

"Life’s just not fair. Why should I eat this food? Why is my family so poor? Why do I have to listen to my parents? Everything is horrible in my life!" Chances are, everyone has thought of at least one of these sayings before. Every day, there are complaints slurred out like rabbit reproductions. However, these complaints are minuscule compared to the amount of suffering in The Hunger Games. Set in a post-apocalyptic North America now called Panem, there are 12 districts each responsible for its assigned production and a tyrannical government city called the Capitol. Since the 75 years of the 13 district’s failed rebellion against the Capitol, there has a been a Hunger Games every year. The Hunger Games was an annual event in where 24

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.

While the Capitol is wealthier, there is some districts that are more privileged than others therefore they can train their tributes so they can do great in The Hunger Games; just like in the modern society not everyone is privileged to go to school or college. Another thing point is the video Occupy Wall Street that shows the unrighteous division of the 1% rich and 99% of the working class. In the novel, the working class encounters many problems such as lack of food, clothes and shelters; while the 1% were living the life. To conclude, another point that is related to today’s society is child soldiers I feel like the government choosing a child between the age of 12 and 18 is related to what was happening in Africa where children were forced to fight against one