The Hunger Games | Teen Ink

The Hunger Games

September 22, 2010
By Chloe Ketchmark BRONZE, Leawood, Kansas
Chloe Ketchmark BRONZE, Leawood, Kansas
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Are people ever forced to sacrifice something against their will something as big as there life. In Panem every year 24 kids against the will enter an arena. Only one will return. Thankfully this is only a part of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Sacrifice is only one of the many comparenses between the contemporary society and Panem. Physical appearance, and violence, is some others and the further the reader looks the more there are. The reader might think that the book is over the top but when they look deeper it is scary how much we are the same.
Violence has the same meaning no matter where the people live, cruel. To the U.S people about as far we can go with violence is war and murder. According to the department of defense 2 U.S solders die a day. War watching people die, losing friend’s family, looking through the rubble for live people! At least we don’t have to watch it. In Panem the hunger games is 24 children fighting to the death while their family sits at home watching. Panem is ran by the Capitol, whenever you try to rebel against the Capitol they blow up there district. The U.S is not the same as Panem the U.S has a democracy so americans can vote and whenever they break the law you just go to jail. The death penalty is very rare and normally is only giving out to serial killers. Americans are the same to because we have wars with other countries and even with our own country. Panem has the same thing because district thirteen was blown up when they started a war against the capitol. The Capitol is very violent and really doesn’t care about anyone but themselves. Especially there leader President Snow, he created the hunger games and a bunch of other decrees to make sure the districts knew who was in charge. To make sure that no one would rebel against the Capitol, so that everything would stay right under him where he wanted it. Our Capitol is run by an elected President that stays in office for four years until the country votes again. Our Capitol is also violent just in different ways and mostly not violent against our own people, violent against other countries. Also in a way the U.S is violent to other countries to try to show them that Americans are in charge that Americans are the strongest country, so really just as Panem is violent so too is The USA.

When the reader thinks of the United States the reader probably think of the free land, but when the reader thinks of Panem their opinion will probably be different. A lot of the difference is Physical Appearance. In Panem there district is about as far as they can go unless you have been ordered by the Capitol. Food was limited even for the wealthier the woods where were the animals were and they were blocked off by an electric fence. Attempting to go in to the woods to get food would be risking there life. All of the states are connected and the boarders are free to cross at anytime. The only exception is when they are trying to enter the U.S if they aren’t a citizen they will not be able to cross the border. In the United States we have different classes, the upper class, middle class, and lower class. These classes represent the amount of money they have. With different amounts of money they are going to live in different conditions. This is the same with the districts some of the districts get more resources then the others. With more resources comes more money which means they will probably live in better conditions. District one makes things for the Capitol so the Capitol respects district one and gives more money and resources to them which would put them in a more upper class then District 12. District twelve mines so they aren’t as big of a deal to the Capitol so they would be more toward the lower class. With different amounts of money the Districts will look different and that is the same with americans. The upper class has better quality things suppose to the lower class will probably have cheaper things.
Sacrifice. Sacrificing things is hard, but when it comes to sacrificing things for the people you love does it change? Or how far will it go before they will back down? In the U.S Americans have people sacrificing their lives every day in Iraq. Some people think that Americans shouldn’t have them over there dying, and some people think that Americans have already lost too many people to just give up and leave. But no matter what you are thinking the solders over there fighting are fighting for our country and sacrificing their lives for The U.S. These people are not forced by the capitol to do any of this, because they can die over there. In Panem people are forced to do many things they don’t want to do. Things that can kill them, once they turn twelve years old on the day of the reaping there lives are in the Capitols hands, and most people do not like that one bit, because there is no way to preclude the capitol. Also they have to sacrifice the tiny little things like their childhood, because most of the time there family needs there help so that they can all survive, sometimes having to sacrifice the little things in life end up sacrificing the big things to.
Just as Panem is a very hard place to live in so too is America, just in different ways, America and Panem are very different and the same in so many ways. There might be countries in this world like Panem. Thankfully Americans physical appearance, sacrifice, and violence are not as harsh as Panem. But maybe if we keep going toward being that violent or being forced into sacrifice, step by step we are moving closer and closer to Panems door step.



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