Final Summative
By: Julia Youkstetter
Analysis
The movie related to Unit two in the many different mosaics painted by each district and the conflict and cooperation between the districts and the Capitol. For example District Two's history of winning tributes creates a picture of power and lifelong physical training for their area. When the competitors migrate to the Capitol for The Hunger Games, they each bring some of their culture with them. A great example of this is the parade when they first get there, where they all where costumes to represent where they came from, like District 4 (the fishing district) wore fishnets. In the story their is a balance of cooperation and conflict because the the Districts hate the Capitol (conflict) but they have to provide/ work for them to survive (cooperation). All of these things tie in very well to the things we discussed in Unit 2.
Unit 3 ties into the movie because of the major exploitation of goods by the Capitol and how the Districts, who all have their own beliefs, have to interact and how this causes conflict even before they get in the arena. The Capitol wastes lots of food and resources by spoiling themselves and surrounding themselves with an unnecessary amount of goods, while people in the Districts are starving. The competitors each grew up in their own area with a different way of living so when they are all forced to live in one place (as they prepare for The Hunger Games), they get into fights and conflicts. I think theses think relate very well to the concepts of exploitation, conflict over natural resources, and problems between belief systems that we talked about in Unit 3.
A lot of things that went on in the Hunger Games can be related to Unit 4, which talked about shifts in power, rights, and freedom. In the movie there are particular tributes that join up and make a kind of "super group" who are very powerful and dangerous. But as they begin to die off and turn on one another the power kind of shifts to the stronger individuals. In the movie the Capitol has complete control over the rights of the people which dictate the quality of their life (they do not have many rights and the quality is poor). The citizens of Panem are given varying degrees of freedom depending on where they live, the citizens of The Capitol have a lot more than those from the Districts. Unit 4 definitely related to the Hunger Games in several ways.
Application
I do not believe that The Hunger Games itself could ever happen because I think that taking people's children for such a reason would cause way too much rioting/ hatred of the government for it too succeed. However I do think that a government where a small group of incredibly wealthy people live a luxurious lives supported by the poor, is a definite possibility. I also think the "peacekeepers" are a realistic concept because I think that it is quite possible that a government would make their cruelty seem like a method to "maintain the peace." I think this would be most likely if nuclear war broke out and only a very small area was left livable (so they only had to govern a small place).