Cultural Geography Final
Haley Foye
Goal: To Connect All four units to "The Hunger Games"
Analysis
Analogy of Cultural Geography: Cultural Geography is like a tree, the different aspects and lessons all branch off of one main understanding.
Unit 1 connections
Unit 2 Connections
Unit 3 Connections
In unit 3 we learned about how "Exploitation and competition over natural resources and interactions between major belief systems may create conflict." In the Hunger Games all of the tributes fight over the weapons in the Cornucopia, as well as the limited natural resources, such as water, shelter, food, fire, and water. Towards the end of the movie Peeta and Katniss strategize and use the nightlock berries to exploit "Fox". They reveal that she has been following them when they find her behind them, dead from eating the berries. All of the conflict in this game results in people killing one another, but with a motive. The whole object is to kill each other, but there is no motive other than to keep your life. Because of the conflict, people have targets, and they have a reason for killing one another. This reason is usually because one person has more natural resources than the other, and if that person dies, the killer gets their resources.
There is also a conflict over natural resources between all districts and the capital. The Capital has an abundance of everything. Many districts don't even have water to take a proper shower or bath. The Capital has everything, more of it than they need. Later in the series Katniss and others create a "war", and they take down the capital because they have so many resources, which leads them to have a lot of power. And the districts don't approve of the way these resources are being distributed.
Unit 4 Connection
In unit 4 we learned how "People are part of groups that gain and lose power over time, creating differing individual rights and varying degrees of freedom." In the movie the Capital rules each district, and decides who out of each district goes into the games. So in the majority of the movie the Capital has power over everything, even the climate of the arena. Bu at the end, when Katniss and Peeta are willing to eat the berries and kill themselves, they influence the capital. At that point, they have control over the people that control the game. But this act has a negative effect on all the districts. President snow gets angry that they "disobeyed" the rules of the game, so he nd the forces take it out on Gale by whipping him. They kill innocent people because they feel out of power, and killing puts them back into power. This occurs in the second book in the series, Catching Fire. The power switches between the Capital and the districts in this book, and the shifting power creates and uprising. This uprising limits where people can go, so it li its their freedom. Because there are bombs being dropped, everybody has to stay inside in order to be safe.
Power shifting in these books restricts many peoples freedoms, and their rights. People should be able to leave without being bombed. Also, the Capital bombs a hospital, with sick patients They are taking away these peoples rights to mend, ad get better.
Application
Could this scoiety be attained on earth?
I do not believe that this society will ever become a reality. There are too many countries in the world that have power over its citizens. There is no way there could only be 1 unit of power, controlling everybody in the world. There are many different views on many different things, and not all powers agree with each others views.
There are so many different factors that play into why this couldn't happen. There is the fact that some countries are run under a democracy, some are run under communist laws, Some countries have total power over their people, like Syria. And some countries have laws, but not total power, like the United States and many other countries. There are many rebellion groups in the world, not just one like in the movie.
It's not realistic to say that all rebellion groups will be gone. Rebel groups have existed since 1894 when E Congo was taken out of control from the Swahili traders. Current day groups, such as ISIS are so advanced and powerful that nobody can stop them. They have advanced technology, which will keep getting more advanced as time goes on. They are attacking many countries, including the U.S.
The world also doesn't have the issue of over population at this point in time. There is an issue, but it's not so extreme that we have to kill off our own people. There are already laws in action in China that prevent people from having more than 2 children, so that the population doesn't get too out of control. This law alone isn't right, and is against multiple human rights. Many people globally argue with this law, and protest about it. So imagine how people would react if all power houses joined, and started putting people in an arena to kill one another. Even in moderation this isn't possible. People are very sensitive, and many of them express that. For example, the riots in Selma, Alabama. People protested day and night so that people of different races could be treated equally. There are so many problems in the world, and not even half of the population would follow the rules or laws that are present in the movie.
There would be to many problems, people would rebel, wars would start, everything would be worse. It's not realistic to say this could happen in the future, because there are too many things that would prevent it, especially the distribution of resources.
Transfer
How The Hunger Games relates to my life
In the movie Katniss and Peeta were willing to die for one another, to protect one another. There are many people in my life that I would die to protect. There are also many rights that I would die to protect, like Katniss did. I would die to protect my right to have a family, and live in freedom. Katniss fought to protect her right of freedom, and to keep her family, and not have the ones she loved killed. Many peoples rights are being violated all over the world. In China they can't have over 2 children, violating their right to have a family as they would like. The people in Syria are in the middle of a terrorist training ground. They aren't allowed to leave. Small children and families are being killed. Houses and resources are being destroyed and taken over. The conditions in Syria pretty much violate all 30 of the human rights. People are being forced to flee. That doesn't connect to my life. but it connects to problems internationally. In Hooksett, the town I live in, there are some homeless people. They don't have shelter or food. This occurred in the movie. In the first scene you can see people sitting on the ground eating old food. This does occur almost everywhere in the world.
I can connect this movie to myself, my town , my country, and other countries. A lot of the aspects in this movie are realistic, and are occurring globally right now.