The Hunger Games (2012): extra credit

                    The hunger games is a book/ film that is based on a young girl named Katniss Everdeen trying to survive in a dystopian version of the United States. Before the hunger games there had been a total of thirteen districts. However, after an uprising; the capital completely obliterated district thirteen to set an example for the rest of the districts. To further discourage any attempt of rebellion the capitol implemented the ‘Treaty of Treason, laws that would guarantee peace and as a reminder they would hold an annual ‘Hunger Games.’ The game was a punishment and it consisted of tributes fighting and killing one another until one ‘victor’ was left, and in turn you would also be bringing honor to your district. Once you reached the age of twelve you were considered eligible and your name would be cast into the reaping as a potential tribute. However, if you were impoverished and starving; you could add your name more times in exchange for tesserae. This tessera was worth a years of supply of grain and oil for one person. When that time of the year came each of the twelve districts would hold a ‘reaping’ in order to provided one boy and one girl from the ages twelve to eighteen. If you weren’t selected you could volunteer to take the place of one of the tributes, but in total there would be twenty four candidates that would part take in the event. It’s important to know that the winner of the event would never have to work for money or scavenge for food for as long as they live… they would be taken care of. This was a perk to districts like one, two, and four because they trained their tributes to be fearsome killers in advance they were known as Career tributes. For the rest of the districts this prize was seen as unobtainable because they were at a serious disadvantage since most of their tributes were malnourished, not suited for combat, and generally unfit to have a real chance at winning,

So how does food and culture contribute to the “Hunger Games?” Well, from the beginning of the film we are introduced to Katniss hunting for a deer to trade and in the book she is concerned about having to feed another mouth because of a cat Prim wanted to keep, and not even a minute after she is entering the woods where she retrieves her bow and arrows and there are venomous snakes, rabid animals, but that if you know how you can also find food. She later reveals going in the woods is illegal and how poaching comes with the most severe penalty, and I think this emphasizes on what someone would do in order to have some food for themselves and their family. In the film and book Katniss is always looking for way to feed her family and herself, and venturing into the woods where she could be killed by one of the animals or be severely punished by the capitol really shows the risks she is willing to take in order to survive, and the only reason she has been able to get away with it is because the peacekeepers are as hungry as everyone else. Katniss considers them some of the best customers. She mocks how in the fall, people from district twelve build up enough courage to sneak into the woods and harvest the apples. However, they’re always close enough to run back to their district if something were to go wrong, “district where you can starve to death in safety,” says Katniss. (ch.1; 6:36) When she meets Gale they become a team and share their hunting secrets with each other and make a pact that of any of them happens to be selected for the Hunger Games that the other would watch out for the family of the one that was chosen. In the book the bread baker lets her know that he will watch over Prim and make sure she’s eating.

Once Katniss volunteers to replace her sister in the games and Peeta has been selected they have a minimal amount of time to say goodbye and Katniss tells Gale to not let her family die (from starvation.) Katniss and Peeta enter a train heading towards the capitol and find there to be way more food than they have ever seen. Katniss immediately begins to stuff her face with food and Effie has to keep reminding her and Peeta to slow down because there would be more food on the way. However, because neither of them have had that much food nor that delicious so  they continued to stuff their faces. At the games Katniss and Peeta were told to run for the woods, but Katniss sees a bow and arrows in the Cornucopia and decides to run for those instead. Before that she got distracted by what she thought was Peeta nodding no so she lost her chance and instead went for a loaf of bread and a bright orange pack. In the book she immediately looks for food. The tributes that didn’t team up with each other spent their time being hungry. They use a “feast” and say that the bags have something that could be life saving, but in turn could just be another way to narrow the list of tributes… another bloodbath. Toward the end of the film the tribute Katniss nicknamed Foxface, was one of the ones that died from being so hungry she failed to notice that the berries she had eaten were poisonous. The berries would later be used by Katniss and Peeta to defy the one victor rule. It’s ironic because they spent their time looking for food and being hungry; only to potentially die from food they found. In other words their disparity was the solution at that point in time.

We are talking about a setting where talking about anything that is deemed controversial can get you severely punished or bring death to you. Even things like food shortages could get you into trouble, and Katniss says she has to bite her tongue and speak accordingly in order to avoid punishment or worse having Prim repeat things she says that could get her killed. The culture developed was so that people would have no way of rebelling we had districts that lived comfortably enough to not want to rebel and if you were someone who did want to rebel you were probably from one of the districts that suffered from malnutrition which meant you weren’t strong enough to fight back against the government that was set up. The odds were not in you favor especially when the better off districts relished with excitement when watching their tributes take out the rest. It was pure entertainment for them both the watching and the killing. Hunger was a way to control the districts because people would be more compliant to do as their told if they are starving or too afraid to starve.

Reference

Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press.

Ross, G., Tucci, S., Bentley, W., Banks, E., Lawrence, J., Hemsworth, L., Collins, S., … Alliance Films. (2012). The hunger games. United States: Alliance Film.