Wednesday, December 11, 2013

"This is the one thing the Games must not do."


What is the one thing Katniss claims the "Games must not do" during her time in the arena? Verge on dullness. The people in the Capitol build their lives around different forms of entertainment: parties, makeovers, and—obviously—the annual Hunger Games.

The author of the blog seen here discusses an aspect of the Hunger Games series that I haven’t really looked at in depth: the idea of extreme consumerism. It’s easy to mock the ostentatious and materialistic lifestyles of the people in Panem’s Capitol. But when you really look at the way they live, it isn’t much different from the way we live.

How many of us watch reality shows on TV? Isn’t that exactly what the Games are, a reality show? Reality shows are a major source of entertainment for people; many people watch these shows in order to have a brief escape from their own reality.

 Through Katniss’s prep team, we learn that the people in the Capitol really are oblivious to many of the problems that are found in the rest of the country. Collins basically warns the readers about the dangers of becoming so focused on things like entertainment that they become ignorant of the real problems in the world.

 As much as we fans of the Hunger Games books and movies would like to say we aren’t like the people of the Capitol, we can’t. A majority of the people in the fandom fit in the “1%” of people who collectively have more wealth than the other 99%. We live in a society that pushes us to consume. We want to buy the newest things and watch the newest shows. Our lives revolve around entertainment—just like the lives of the Capitol citizens.

 Even our love for the series seems hypocritical in a way. We see the premiers of the movies, and then we go back to see it again. We become obsessed with the cast, just as the Capitol people become obsessed with the victors of the Games.

 So I think this is the challenge for all of us: we need to find a way to satisfy our desires for entertainment without becoming so overwhelmed with them that we lose the reality around us.

 If our “Games” verge on dullness, we shouldn’t view it as a tragedy; we should take it as an opportunity to realign our focus on the reality that we face.

1 comment:

  1. I like this concept a lot. It made me think of something else: the fact that Katniss and Peeta come from the poorest district and are considerably the most normal and human. I didn't think about it before but Collins is very much like Henry Thoreau, who wrote that the marrow of life comes from things we can't buy. Well-written! :)

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