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Patricia Dominguez
Professor Filbeck
English 113A
November 18, 2014
Fixed Game or Reality?
As our society goes on today, maybe going about our daily lives doesnt exactly have the
odds in our favor. Award winning movie The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross and
written by Suzanne Collins, reached popularity of millions across the world. The Hunger Games
is about a dystopian society where people are isolated by class and race into twelve districts and
are kept under control by The Capitol. After the rebellion and severe loses in the districts, The
Capitol sought to punish the people and created the annual Hunger Games where they gather
young tributes from each district to enter an arena and battle for their lives by having to kill one
another. If we really break down the comparison of the movie to our everyday life not much is
different from the government controlling and watching our every move, to separation of social
classes and keeping our nations poorest under food stamps. Considering we are a democracy that
no longer has a say in what truly happens in our government behind closed doors, The Hunger
Games provides a good comparison on how the government can control what happens in our
society.
Through out The Hunger Games we are told there are twelve different districts and one
capital. Every district is assigned a different kind of work, with the highest district, District One,
working for the rich in technology, and the lowest, District Twelve, mining coal. The people in
each district know of each others existence, but have no contact with one another. The only
people allowed to travel out of their district are people from The Capitol and tributes chosen for

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the Hunger Games such as main characters Katniss and Peeta from District Twelve. The problem
is not only the isolation from one another; these people are being separated by their race and
economic background. Each district is set to have separate standards, and views the Hunger
Games differently. The upper districts, including the Capitol, have a good life, where the people
are trained for the games, whereas districts like eleven and twelve are starving for food. In a
scene where District Eleven starts to rebel against its peacekeepers, in other words police, you
see that the district is mostly Black, a district separated by color. Its a scene that is noticeable
and actually relatable.
In the US, we have gone through racism and have surpassed it. Although CNN news
reporter John S Sutter says otherwise by writing an article titled Is Class the New Race?
Sutter said, Its becoming more difficult for the poor to move up into the middle class and more
difficult for the middle to dig in its heels to stop from slipping into poverty. (Sutter) Relating
back to The Hunger Games, the district they live in is the district they are staying in despite
winning the riches of the game. In real life we really do have isolation but its between social and
economic classes. People with higher incomes and better houses will live in gated communities,
or own cars for each member of their family, separated from lower class people. While people
with low incomes can share a one bedroom apartment with five others and never even own a car.
These two different social classes are people that will never come in contact simply because the
upper class will always divide and look down upon the lower class.
Not only did The Hunger Games have the isolation of districts and divisions of social
class and race, it also shows how the Capitol uses the districts to get food and supplies. President
Snow claims that in exchange for the food, the government is protecting the districts, but while
they have an unlimited source of food, the people in the lower districts are starving. In a scene

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from the second film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, President Snow throws a party for the
victors Katniss and Peeta, and there is so much food to spare, that the people at the party would
throw it all up to be able to eat more. While in another scene from the first movie The Hunger
Games Katniss is sitting out in the rain starving because she had no food. Peeta the bakers son
had leftover bread and gave it to her despite it being burnt. The Capitol has enough power to
protect all districts but that protection isnt real. The Capitol uses the poor districts and
pretends to be protective, because those districts want to continue to live the luxury life.
After watching the scene of the Katniss starving for food while people in the Capitol
enjoy themselves to dessert it also rings a bell to how this problem relates to our society today,
and the people across our country living off of food stamps, including the people that live off the
street. Although the government provides certain supplies to the poor, the funding for them is
coming the taxpayers pocket. A CNN article written by Lisa Desjardins state, The richest 20
percent of Americans get 50.3 percent of the countrys income. She also includes that overall
14.3 percent of Americans live in poverty.(Desjardins) Though its a controlled poverty because
the government decides based on family income whether you need food stamps or not. They
have set a certain amount of money where youre either poor enough to get the aid or slightly
above poor to not get it. But when youre slightly doing just fine they take it all away making our
middle class society struggle even more. Why? Because the rich want to help keep the rich stay
rich while the poor stay at the bottom and never let them move up. That is whats an eye opener
about this movie because its a movie where its a game for the survival of the fittest, but we
dont realize its actually happening all around us.
Not only does The Capitol control where and how each district lives they also control
what they see. The only show these districts are allowed to see is anything related to the hunger

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games and the interviews with Cesar Flickerman. He is an agent to The Capitol that many of
these people admire but little do they know he only broadcasts half of the hunger games truth. In
the last recent movie Hunger Games: Mocking Jay, the revolution of the districts has begun and
Peeta is captured by The Capitol and kept as prisoner. While he is kept as prisoner, Cesar
Flickerman uses Peeta in an interview to make Katniss seem like she is the reason for rebellion.
In the interview scene Flickerman tells Peeta It seems as though she (Katniss) is part of a rebel
plan. Flickerman also says Sweet girl who has inspired so much violence you must love
her so much to be able to forgive her because I dont think that I could unless you think she is
being forced. There is much emotion that comes out of these interviews shown to people of the
districts for one purpose only and that is to manipulate them. When in the movie Peeta is the one
being forced by The Capitol to pin the blame all on Katniss. Cesar who works for The Capitol is
the only reliable source the people have therefore they believe everything he says and everything
they see because its only half the truth that is shown.
Reflecting on the interview with Cesar Flickerman, this also has a slight comparison to
events happening in our society today. Comparing our societys release of a naked photo of the
most pointless famous person Kim Kardashian, to the first ever-human accomplishment with
landing the Rosetta Spacecraft on a comet. How do these to subjects compare? They dont expect
both of these happened on the same day. Our society has developed so much amazing technology
that helps us live an easily life but we are only taught to use it pointlessly. We are taught to only
look at what entertains us. In an article by Tim Sharp published on Space.com he writes about
the comet saying Rosetta is a spacecraft on a 10-year mission to catch a comet and land a probe
on it. (Sharp) More than half of our society doesnt want to read that becomes it bores them let
alone many people had no idea this happened. The reason for that was Kim Kardashian naked

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photo for Paper Magazine made headlines across the nation breaking the internet. Websites
like TMZ and Glamour Magazine made it there job to give people what they wanted to see and
that was to make it known by sharing through other social media like Twitter and Facebook. The
media only shows us what makes us feel happy or gets us excited rather than something that
makes us pick up our phones and pretend we are having a conversation with someone.
The Hunger Games provides a good comparison of what government control can do to a
society by social isolation, lack of food supplies and manipulation of social media. Our society is
based on democracy where the people have no control over our government. Thats the truth, the
government controls our every move and if one person steps out of its boundaries their simply
removed while the rest of the society is being distracted by what makes us feel happy. The rich
settle for not having to come in contact with the poor because we allow them to think theyre are
better and deserved to be separated by gated homes. People who live in the lower classes will
either be worrying if they have a place to sleep, food to eat, and a job to depend on. While this is
happening behind closed doors, the government introduces social media to distract and help us
forget our real problems simply because we feel happy. Finding comparisons of our real world to
the trilogy of The Hunger Games isnt a coincidence nor just for our entertainment, but a clear
picture of our society today.

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Work Cited
Desjardins, Lisa American Sauce: This Is Rich vs. Poor. CNN Politcal Ticker RSS. 16
May 2011, Web 18 Nov. 2014.
The Hunger Games. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson.
Roadshow, 2012. DVD.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh
Hutcherson. Lionsgate, 2013. DVD.
Hunger Games: Mocking Jay. Dir. Francis Lawrence. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh
Hutcherson. Lionsgate, 2014. Film.

Sharp, Tim. Rosetta Spacecraft: To Catch a Comet. Space.com. PURCH, 17 Nov.

2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
Sutter, John D. Is Class the New Race? CNN. Cable News Network, 30 Oct. 2013.
Web. 13 Nov. 2014.