Ozaeta 1

Daisy Ozaeta
Professor Lawson
English 114B
20 April 2014
Project Text Final Draft
Word Count: 1343
The Hunger for Equality
The Hunger Games is a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins which not only impacted and
attracted kids and teenagers but adults as well. She discusses on many issues in the novel include
those that exist not only in Panem but in our world and society still today, such as, economic
inequality. Its been years now that this country remains being unequal to those not of wealth
which has brought violence and rebellion but most of all pain to those in need. Those who supply
the Capitol just like the United States with wealth and resources are the main ones without it.
Instead the main workers are backfired, cheated, and mistreated. The same issues that exist in
Katniss Everdeens world exist in this great world we live in, America. The Hunger Games is a
warning an example about extremely unfair distribution regarding money, education, and
sustainability.
The so called Utopian society of Panem relates equivalently to our free land America
where you are provided with free education, freedom of speech, religion, and so much more.
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The Capitol and our country are similar due to its ideal that both worlds are being converted into
perfect societies by supervision, regulation, and governing. Both are alike by their system they
fall into, capitalism. Capitalism is controlled by private owners rather than by the state, allowing
the rich to only get richer and the poor to remain poor. In the world of the Hunger Games, their
capitalist city is controlled by the Capitol in which lives luxuriously, surrounded by advanced
technology in a utopian city where only the powerful and wealthy may live. Living elegantly
President Snow monitors and directs every District who has a duty to fulfill sustaining the
Capitol with all its riches and resources. However every District is treated differently and those
who must work to survive the day are given no sympathy no matter what age or condition they
are in. For example District 12, who is known for producing coal and having to work in mines no
matter how dangerous or unhealthy it is. In return they are unequally paid barely given enough to
buy a days grain or weeks oil. The days of working are endless mean while the days of eating
are barely even more like hardly. Though the main workers are the ones doing all the labor work
they are the ones who are not provided or given sufficient food, water, money, education. Those
who work hard receive nothing in return compared to those who dont have to work in such
conditions or as hard breaking a sweat. The treatment and inequality the people in poor Districts
receive is exactly the issue people in our country get too.
One of the most noticeable examples of the unequal distribution in our just like the
Capitol world is the existence of hunger. As said in an article, poverty and hunger, the most
extreme social inequity, are ubiquitous in both developed and developing countries. The entire
trilogy gets into detail with the inequality that exists in Panem starting out with the hunger the
people suffer with every day. However without money you cannot buy food living in the Capitol
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or anywhere in this world. Money makes the world go around, they say and it is true. There are
greedy humans like those in the Capitol and in our very own society. Dislike the fact this issue is
nothing new, still nothing is done and the powerful remain to maintain power. In our society, the
wealthy have power over greater financial opportunities that allow for their money to make more
money which in turn allows them to live in nice rich areas like Beverly Hills for example. In the
Capitol, only the wealthy and powerful are able to live in the city which in comparison is
Beverly Hills. Seems unfair does it not? To live stress free and have everything you want without
have to even think if you really need whatsoever you are trying to get, without having to go to
bed on an empty stomach daily, without worrying about scorching cold winters thatll probably
kill you because you have no heater ventilation or coated coats or anything. Does it seem unfair
having nothing compared to those who have everything and instead of being helped youre
passed by, looked, and laughed at like you are some joke. We are all equal but just like in the
Capitol and this society, we sure are not treated like it. Now in Katnisss case, living hungry for
years and one day being thrown everything you never had is not only shocking but
uncomfortable, being rewarded for your victory of surviving not being killed. Katniss herself
comments I mourn my old life. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in. I wish I could
go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared with now, when I am so rich
and so famous and so hated by the authorities in the Capitol.(Collins 7). Though she is now
secure that she will never go hungry or broke, it still is unfair the inequality treatment she is
receiving.
Education is very important and depending what area, city or neighborhood you are
surrounded by is the type of leads to the type of learning you receive. If you live in a nice
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neighborhood and area you will receive an education far more different and advanced compared
to attending a school in a broke or decent neighborhood. Every year in school, as part of our
training, my class had to tour the mines. (Collins 5) What kind of field trip is that? Only one the
school can provide and give to their students. Also, one a higher institute like the Capitol orders
for those in the District to attend as part of our training. The Capitol does not and would not
provide efficient education to the poor when they believe only the best also known as the rich
only deserves the best to remain rich. Though the Hunger Games is fiction it tells us a lot about
gender, class, and inequality regarding any society like our own for instance. The Capitol just
like our country all support, adore, glorify, prefer one group only, Caucasians. Lisa Keister
comments, social stratification refers to the unequal distribution of people along measures of
well-being such as education, income, and wealth. We live in a white dominant society who are
rich, spoiled, thrown with opportunities, great incomes and excellent education
The Capitol, where the hard work from Districts are distributed and enjoyed with no
appreciation or attention to those in the lower class that live life in poverty and in hunger. Just
like the government who pretends to worry and care for those in the middle and lower class
when in reality they do not care because no strong action is ever done just like in the Capitol.
What rules America? Wealth, income, and power. Who rules Panem? The wealth, the ones with
good income, and power. Furthermore, though the inequality is obvious, perceptible, and
definite, the Capitol just like the United States continues to maintain control over the slave
laborers like those in the District. In the end, its disappointing and devastating to witness, learn,
and know that those in the middle and lower class work more than what they can even provide
and enjoy for themselves.
Works Cited

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009.
"Is Social Equity Achievable? Might Natures Most Abundant Crop End Hunger?." The Business
of Sustainability: Trends, Policies, Practices, and Stories of Success, (2011): .
Of Bread, Blood, and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy.
Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2012.
Keister, Lisa A, and Darby E Southgate. Inequality : A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class
and Gender. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.