Separated Districts

"After the war, Capitol destroyed all the nests surrounding the city, but the ones near the districts were left untouched. Another reminder of our weakness I suppose, just like the Hunger Games. Another reason to keep inside the fence of District 12" (186.Collins)

The Capitol decided to put fences around each district so they can be separated from one another. This action done by the Capitol doesn't surprise me, because each district in the story is in different social classes, so to keep everything organize, the government makes each class live where they belong, instead of combing the classes in one district. This meant that people from other districts can not communicate with each other, unless you're in the Hunger Game, like Kitness and Peeta. Another reason for the wired fence, is to show their weakness, just like how Kitness is describing it. The fact that they are surrounded by fences everyday of their lives, reminds the people they are trapped in their restricted area and not having the rights to escape or roam around to experience the different districts. It shows how vulnerable they are, and how little control they have for their lives when the government is over powering the systems. Also, Kitness uses the fences as a simile for the Hunger Game after she got wounded. The Hunger Game reminds the players how vulnerable they are when they have to always be on the look out for a victim to kill, when they are considered to be victims themselves. Every day, someone is capable to die in the game, so everyone can not feel strong and encouraged all the time when the game is extremely depressing and appalling. No one can be worry free when  they can be the next one dead at any time of the day. With death hanging over your shoulders at all times, its impossible not to feel weak. How would you feel if you were in Kitness' position? Would you've already give in out of fear and weakness? Or would you fight for the win?

Katniss=Dog?

"All I can think is how unjust the whole thing is, the Hunger Games. Why am i hopping around like some trained dog trying to please people I hate? The longer the interview goes on, the more fury seems to rise to the surface,until I'm literally spitting out answers at him." (117.Collins)

Before the Hunger Game actually occurs, Katniss must go through an interview for the broadcast of the show. Haymitch convinces her to "gain favors" from the audience so that she could be supported from the watchers to stay tuned for Hunger Games. Haymitch encourages Katniss to show the audience a good feature/ personality about herself. Eventually he decided she should be "humble" for the interview. But Katniss refuses to show any kind of positive attitude for the interview, because she doesn't feel comfortable and rather angry that she has to obey and sit down like a "trained dog" in front of people she doesn't even like.Katniss also wants her privacy about her life back home from people that could possibly cause her death and have already decided her future. She has the temptation of exposing her true feelings of the Hunger Game, but is aware that she can not do that because she would put not only her, but also her family back at District 12, danger. The fact that she is restricted from freedom of speech on television shows that this is a Utopian society, because the government is not only controlling what is shown to the public in television, but very strict to what is said against the government. Not only do they control what is broadcasted, but also authorize what the speaker can or can't say to everyone. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to expose the Hunger Games and their horrors on the interviews. I would assume that a lot of people in the game are tempted to share how they really feel to the world, but can't because the Panem figureheads are constantly watching and certainly capable to punish anyone who disobeys them.  

Survival of the Fittest

"The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins." (18.Collins)

Based on what Panem's figurehead, twelve innocent children could possibly loose their lives because of an uprising that wasn't even caused by them. This is ridiculous and fairly disturbing. I don't think that their only punishing the people for the uprising, but also punishing the adults and parents of the districts. The tributes are obviously forced to put their names in the "raffle", because no one would volunteer for such a game, so the parents must watch and hope that their child won't get picked. And if they did get picked;they have to hope their child to be the winner. I see this as more of a discipline for the parents and adults, because a way to phase the older community is to show that the government is willing to put innocent children on the line to keep the others in line. It seems more like a warning that they are capable of doing anything just to show that they have power and dominance, because there would not be any other reason for this game to exist in the first place. Children are one of the most innocent creatures on this planet, so the fact that a government uses them and take away their innocence with this "game", is outrageous and doesn't improve anything. This obviously shows manipulation and dominance, because people are chosen randomly, without their will to participate in a game where they might die, and they can't have the opportunity to speak up or rebel. The government has full control on what they can and can't do. So even if someone is courages enough to speak up, he would probably be dead or be sent to the arena anyways. Also, the figureheads makes this situation into a game show, hosted on television to keep everyone "posted" or "entertained" is a way for the government to make the killings not as serious or bad as it really is. I don't see this game benefits anyone. I think the government wants out of this is to punish the society for something that happened in the past, and used their children to make the punishment worse. But broadcasting it has no purpose, besides giving a chance for a child's parents to watch him/her getting killed.  

Appreciate Everthing

"'They're not sorry they still have their dam, or their good lives on the Frontier; they're sorry they've been made to feel gulity about how they got these wonderful things. Maybe that's not fair. Maybe some of them really do feel bad. Oh well, as far as I'm concerned they can be sorry as much as they like. I tell 'em, "Next time you eat cherries, remember who picked 'em. Next time you swig water, stop and wonder where it came from.'" (435.Adlington)

This quote made me wonder a lot about what we're not thankful for. The littlest things can always be appreciated. According to Luka, even the water we drink we should appreciate where it came from. With Luka the one screwing on bottles of water and suffering everyday by her boss at the factory, of course she would be grateful for everything she has now, because what she had before was nothing. All these factories making everything we have, we never consider thinking about the people who incorporated their times and hard working hands into it. But sometimes the government purposely hides certain information from the public, because it doesn't seem right with the conditions of the work place. In the book, the factory place was a place hidden from the public because of how bad the conditions were. Noticing now that the working place aren't exposed and told about, make us wonder what really goes on in those factories that the public doesn't know about? Why do we know so little about factory conditions? Especially clothing brand or shoe brand companies. They don't seem to show the public what their factories are like. This can also wonder how much corrupted work conditions are out there, hidden from public. As us, the consumers who purchase these items, should always consider what the effort was put into everything. 

Factory Workers

"Then came the pictures,all drawn with Harpo's scientific precision. The crowd began to murmur. What did it mean? Who were these skeleton people lugging stone in a quarry? Who were those beasts with twisted faces beating workers emerging from the slit of the dam foundations? Was this the the way their dam had been built? These ghosts in white, were they the ones filling bottles of bubble Blue Mountain? Those bodies on the factory floor, were they actually dead?" (395.Adlington)

With the corruption of unfair factory labor exposed to the whole community, they were all flabbergasted. While the society was drinking their delicious Blue Mountain beverage, they had no idea that the people working in the factory was being abused. Luckily, an escaped factory worker and some friends exposed the horrible conditions of the factory to everyone. Q Essnid, the governor was aware of what was going on in the factory, but tries to hide this secret from everyone that admired him. Q Essnid tries to deny the fact that he knew anything about the conditions of the factory, but he definitely was aware. Factory labors has been around for a fairly long time. Till this day there are still factory labors with people working crazy hours and getting extremely low pay, like in China. But not as bad as the one described in the book. I predicted that in the future, working conditions would improve, just like how they improved from the past. But, it got worse, and the factory only brought in a certain race to do all the labor work. That is a combination of both inequality and corrupted work labor. Apparently in the future, racism and horrible work conditions will get worse, not better. If workers are starving to the point that they look like skeletons, and dead bodies are on the ground, than factories have really reached their limits of providing any rights to the people. Are there factories somewhere in the world that is like this? And we as the people, are not aware? People in prisons now, even have a better condition than the workers in the book. Might as well be in prison and get fed then working for hours without any pay or chance to leave. 

The amazing Q Essind

"During the drought the had triggered the war, the O-HA was created, sending life-saving shipments of pure water. United behind Q Essind, the Frontier was proud to say they'd never succumbed to the racism of the cities. Unsurprisingly, Q Essnid was elected Frontier governor every year without fail. His face smiled out from poster along the length of the town hall, advertising the O-HA's upcoming rally."(114-115.Adlington) 

Immediately reading the book, it became obvious that Q Essind was the figurehead in the New Frontier. Described in the book, Q Essind is an attractive looking man, who doesn't only govern the New Frontier, but also models for every poster and signs in the community. Anyone as the figurehead in a utopian book is usually the bad guy. He puts on a fake appearance for everyone to assume that  he is this amazing guy doing everything perfectly and helpfully for his people. But in reality he is over powering them and deceiving. Although Q Essind helped create everything that is in the New Frontier, he used wrong tactics to achieve it. Killing a certain race just to satisfy racist governments is corrupt. But the people living in the New Frontiers weren't aware of his actions, because of all the other great things he has done for the society. With such great actions, of course they wouldn't have expected him to do anything wrong. It's just ironic how not only was he the most "perfect" governor, but he also had the looks to advertise everything. This may say something about present day. Many large corporations like to use beautiful women or handsome men to represent their company. This may be a trick of propaganda. Using good looking people can influence others to want to be like them or look like them, persuading them to buy and use whatever they're using. I think with Q Essind's looks captured many people to believe that if they follow his advise and instructions, they can be like him. Propaganda is all around us. We just never notice it. Based on the novel, how far can propaganda influence us to do?

Sacrifices

"' He's done it all-all of this. Look at it! Celebrate if you still feel like cheering! He gave us what we wanted-our peace, our prosperity, this giant monument to all things great and glorious! All it cost was a few Galrezi lives. He said it was all for the best, that good would come of it. Yeah, like the ends justified the means, Daddy.'" (410-411.Adlington)

This all relates to the government needing to live in a Utopian world. Every Utopian world must sacrifice something to "perfect" a society. Unfortunately, whatever the government chooses to give up for the dystopian world is usually something really important. like their life or freedom. Based on all the Utopian stories I have read, there are always dystopian protagonist fighting their way from the government to expose the reality of the "perfect" world. In this quote, the figurehead's son is revealing his dad's horrific actions to have "peace" in the New Frontier. The action to get rid of a certain race to form a greater and more peaceful world reminds me of the Holocaust, with Hitler's attempt to kill all the Jews in order for a "stronger" Germany. This concept was always the wrong approach and unacceptable to think that killing will lead to some kind of peace. Most of the time, the people living in the society aren't aware of what the government are doing to maintain peace. Killing innocent people for someone's wanting is self-centered and morally wrong. Luckily, there are many people who see this philosophy as improper. This makes us question, what has the government done behind or backs to maintain a good society? Have they ever killed innocents for the sake of their people? Or is it okay for us to sacrifice a few for the thousands of people that want a better life? Personally, the concept of even kill one innocent for a Utopian world is unacceptable and useless, because in Utopian societies there are people that are always miserable. It is impossible to have everyone satisfied with what the world. So there is no point in killing anyone if not every single person will be happy with how the world is functioning.