The Hunger Games, But Not Really A Game
The books and movies of The Hunger Games are beloved by all. The trilogy fills everyone with nostalgia after every re-read or re-watch. However, upon first exposure to the trilogy, most people don’t pick up on the real-life parallels carefully and intentionally written into the story by the author, Suzanne Collins.
Most obviously, in real life, the economic balance and relationship between the rich and the poor is increasingly widening. In The Hunger Games, the Capitol is a technologically advanced city full of wealthy people and a government that heavily controls its citizens. The Capitol officials are much more affluent than the District folk, and those in positions of power don’t do anything to change that fact. Instead, they insist on annually hosting the Hunger Games, dangering the already suffering people of the Districts for entertainment. In the real world, politicians and other people in power claim to slowly bring an end to poverty, but there don’t seem to be many substantial results to back this up. Poverty rates have been incredibly high, and we’ve yet to see a considerable difference.
Again, this issue is seen with taxes. Despite having more than enough money to pay their taxes, the rich seem to easily find a way to get out of paying them, despite the rest of the middle and lower classes still struggling to pay.
Many fans of the Hunger Games have taken to social media, to recognize the eerie similarities between the Capitol and the Met Gala. Every year at the Met Gala, celebrities dress up in outrageous costumes (worthy of Effie Trinket), spending millions of dollars, while everyone else just sits back and watches on TV, symbolizing the spectacle put on by the Capitol, with the District people just watching from home. Celebrities spend so much money on outfits they could never use again, something that heavily contributes to climate change, and this money could be used much more effectively.
A common observation made is how the Hunger Games could likely be the future of our current world. In the novel, the history of Panem is detailed (Panem being the country that includes both the Capitol and all the Districts), and it’s mentioned how the country was plagued with climate-related disasters including storms, droughts, and fires before its formation. In our current world, these disasters are the very effects of global warming. If climate change continues to worsen, in the far future the world could look very similar to the reality of Panem.
The fictional story of The Hunger Games perfectly parallels real life and it could serve as a subtle warning issued by the author, Suzanne Collins, urging society to look around at what’s happening in our current world, and what could possibly happen in the future.