The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
Something Powerful
Something I thought powerful about The Hunger Games is when Katniss, the main character of the story, is walking with Gale to their home in the Seam and she is telling the readers about the tesserae. "We walk toward the Seam in silence. I don't like that Gale took a dig at Madge, but he's right, of course. The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. And so on until you reach the age of eight teen, the final year of eligibility when your name goes into the pool seven times. That's true for every citizen in all twelve districts in the entire country of Panem." She goes on to talk about the tesserae, and how Madge, daughter of the mayor, doesn't even care about the tesserae because she has it all, while Katniss is running a whole family on her own and how many times more she gets her name entered in the tesserae than anyone else. I feel this is powerful because it makes the rich and the poor stand out and how the tesserae can easily distinguish whether someone is poor or rich considering how many times they enter for their age.