Social Awareness #4

I'm responding to social issues that are in the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Even though it takes place way into the future in post-apocalyptic America which is very different from America today, it's actually not quite different from other countries today with power-hungry oppressive governments.

In The Hunger Games, the country of Panem (modern-day America) have a government called the Capitol who are extremely controlling. The Hunger Games is about the Capitol sending one boy and one girl from each District to fight to the death with other tributes from other Districts because of a rebellion that happened almost a century before, to show that there should not be another uprising again, because the Capitol dictates all of Panem.

It's all so kind of like during the Holocaust, because in the world of The Hunger Games normal innocent people are being killed because the government says it's okay and should happen, and people are too afraid to rise up against it and fight for their human rights, because dictating governments are so scary, but really, it's not an okay thing to happen.

The people of the Districts (especially children and teenagers aged 12-16, because those are the ages of tributes) are constantly living in fear of the government and cannot enjoy their lives. This is all because long ago the ancestors of these people wanted a fair government then, but after they rebelled, it just got worse, and these people don't want it to get even worse than it already is, so they don't do anything. They look the other way, ignore what's happening, try to get the least involved as possible so they can just survive. And the really bad thing is, there are still countries today with very controlling governments. Not as severe as the Capitol in The Hunger Games, but still very bad. A lot of these countries aren't even allowed to contact the United States, because the dictators of those countries know that our country has the power to stop oppression. The controlling governments are afraid. Afraid just like the people living in them, but in a different way, in a way that someone will help, as opposed to the citizens, afraid that there will never be help. So in countries like this, everyone is afraid. And it's not healthy or right at all.