Suffering

            The Hunger Games is known as one of the most compelling, dramatic novels of modern-day fiction. It’s violence, raw emotion, and ambitious scope meld together to draw a storyline that is ever so enticing, and leaves the reader turning pages as quickly as they can read the words. The novel showcases the nation of Panem, which is a Capitol, surrounded by 12 outlying districts. The government is extremely corrupted and has created a class system, which is unjust and very prejudiced to the people living in the nation. Living in district one allows for the best of all worlds, the best clothing, best food, best everything, and as the district number increases up to 12, the conditions deteriorate immensely. In the poor districts, starvation is common, and residents have to fight for their food. The inequality between rich and poor is showcased in chapter four when Katniss gets her first meal on the train. On page 55, Katniss says:

 “The moment I slide into my chair I’m served an enormous platter of food. Eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes. A tureen of fruit sits in ice to keep it chilled. The basket of rolls they set before me would keep my family going for a week. There’s an elegant glass of orange juice. At least, I think it’s orange juice, I’ve only even tasted an orange once… Then I stuff down every mouthful I can hold.”

In Katniss’s village, her family views basic foods as luxuries. Here she sits on a train eating more food than she has ever seen. The feasts are lavish, and the dishes are prepared very exquisitely. People in Katniss’s district will go so far to get food as to exchange extra rations of food and oil for putting their names into the reaping additional times. They are exchanging potentially losing their lives in return for food. It is almost disturbing that the government can work in such a way. Governments are supposed to support the people of their nation, but this one is doing the opposite. While they allow for the first districts to thrive, they leave the last ones in severe suffering. Seeing how excited Katniss gets over food makes me want to reach out and help her and the rest of the people of district 12. The Capitol is demeaning the other districts only to showcase their power. It is almost ironic because the other suffering districts begin relying on themselves and making do with what they have rather than relying on everything being handed to them. They are practicing natural piety because they have more common sense, value each other, and value what they have around them.  They are forced to become close to nature, because nature is all they have.

            District 12’s difficult living conditions are similar to those described by Rousseau, where he talks about the earth being left to its natural fertility. Their district is on the outskirts of the nation, and has a lot of nature. The people are meant to use that for survival.

            Along with the Capitol leaving the people to suffer in the districts, they also use suffering as entertainment annually in the ‘Hunger Games.’ The more brutal, and the more the tributes suffer, the more entertaining the games become. There are children, and all tributes are fighting for their lives, while others sit around and watch it as if it’s an entertaining television show. The suffering isn’t just physical, it is also very psychological. Katniss’s and Peeta’s romance is an interesting concept because it is one that is bound to be forced to end. Their staged romance, which in the end turns into something deeper, is eaten up by those watching, they know that the both of them won’t survive, and watching their love suffer is pleasurable. How much entertainment they provide for the people relates to their ‘value.’ They are doing nothing more than losing their identities and forced to transform into something that isn’t what they normally are simply for the sake of the government. It makes me sick that the government gets away with this form of blasphemy and mistreatment of their people.