Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Hunger Games :O6 So I still have a chance, though. Funny, in the arena, when I poured out those berries, I was only thinking of outsmarting the Gamemakers, not how my actions would reflect on the Capitol. But the Hunger Games are their weapon and you are not supposed to be able to defeat it. So now the Capitol will act as if they've been in control the whole time. As if they orchestrated the whole event, right down to the double suicide. But that will only work if I play along with them. (358, Collins)
The Hunger Games are all about the power of the Capitol, so they've got to appear to be in control. Katniss and Peeta’s double suicide stunt was the one that undermined the government’s authority. In this scene, the government was not the ones in charge (finally). Instead, it was Katniss and Peeta who were in control. Every day and every second of the games, they both were going along with what the government wanted them to do, at least up to the final moments of the game. No one forced them or told them to eat the berries, they chose to. Katniss and Peeta were controlling themselves and their own fates. I guess you can say that they are taking a leap at faith.
Not only did Katniss outraged the Gamemakers, she stripped them of their control, their needs to be on top. They look at what she has done as a form of mockery and that she is challenging them. I’m pretty sure that that was not Katniss was intentions. Like she said, no one was supposed to be able to defeat/win the games, but she did. Not only did she actually win, she won in a more metaphorically way. She beat the Gamermakers at their own game. She showed them that conformity did not get the best of her and that she will do what she has to survive. Survival is the key in the book to overrule the government. The people of Panem saw what happen to the people in District 13 because, like I said before, District 13 is a warning of what could happen to them.
The government’s authority was taken away from them as soon as those berries were taken out. It proves that the smallest action can be a loophole in fighting what these people believe is right. No one ever questioned the government because what the government has told them was the only thing that they acknowledged. They didn’t know any better and even if they did, they didn’t want to put their lives at stake, yet they were also secretly looking for change. Katniss understood the fact that there can be no changes if no one did anything. She chose to set herself free and she chose to rid Panem of its dystopian characteristics. She chose to free Panem.
Labels: DJ6, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @9:29 PM!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The Hunger Games :O5 I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta's hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a good-bye, and we begin counting. "One." Maybe I'm wrong. "Two." Maybe they don't care if we both die. "Three!" It's too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to m mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare. (344-345, Collins)
At the end of the Games, Katniss and Peeta are ready to sacrifice themselves rather than give in to the Capitol's demands that they kill each other. The Gamemasters and the government of Panem must have been really mad when Katniss and Peeta tried to commit suicide. In this case, they are indeed rebelling against the government. It was said before in the book that there are invisible barriers to keep people from jumping; and even if they did jump, they would get bounced back. By eating the berries, it is obvious to the government that Katniss and Peeta are going against them. But to them two, it was not what they were intentionally going to do. They both grew fond of each other and would rather die than to live without each other. Of course this would anger the government because to them, these two kids are challenging the games but most importantly, they are challenging them.
Katniss believes that the government would not care but of course they would. If they were to commit suicide in front of everyone watching, then everyone would know that there are loopholes in the system and the government would not stand as firm or powerful anymore. They told the players that if the two last tributes were from the same district, they would both win. But when it came down to Katniss and Peeta, they changed their mind. They had to change their minds once again when they were going to eat the poisonous berries because if they didn’t, the viewers would know that two kids have gotten to them, rebelled, and most importantly succeeded. They could not have this happen so they had to stop Katniss and Peeta from eating the berries.
Katniss and Peeta are not only just fighting to survive, they are fighting to have a chance to actually be human. All their lives, they lived tied to leashes and for once, they have a chance to get out of the leashes and to become someone that they want to be. In a place where no one can take that away from them.
Labels: DJ5, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @8:23 PM!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Hunger Games :O4 Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen." (18, Collins)
The districts all pay a yearly sacrifice to the Capitol in the form of their tributes – children who will die in the Hunger Games. Katniss also mentions District 13. This region was completely destroyed in the uprising and was also a kind of sacrifice to the government. Katniss knows that she cannot outdo the system. She put her name in the pile more than once because she had to do it to save her family. The government is using these peoples’ need for food to show them that they cannot fight the system, that they can only go with it. The government has all the power and they took out District 13 to show everyone else that they are in command. If the people do anything that the government does not like, District 13 is a real-life example of what could happen to their own District.
The games were created to show them that in every rebellion, in the end, it is always the government that wins. The government can destroy everything in a blink of an eye and they would not feel any remorse for what they have done. The government wants to show that they are not the people’s friend; they would not do anything to the people if they would just live by their rules but if they try to do anything that the government does not approve of, chaos would be done to not only that person buy to everyone that knows that person because the government is above all.
It sort of reminds me of totalitarianism. The government would not stop at anything to get what it wants. No one has the ability to stop them, and even if they did, they would not get very far because the government is the law. No one can bypass it or at least they think that no one can.
It also tells me that no matter when in time; the government will always have its way. No matter how corrupted the government is or not, the government always has the last say. Our government is not the best right now and I’m pretty sure if a lot of people try to overrun it, they would be able to because no one is on that tight of a leash as the people in Panem is.
Labels: DJ4, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @8:06 PM!
Monday, December 12, 2011
The Hunger Games :O3 "Whose idea was the hand holding?" asks Haymitch.
"Cinna's," says Portia.
"Just the perfect touch of rebellion," says Haymitch. (79, Collins)
The tributes' gesture is read as a symbol of protest. In the games, as said before, there will only be one survivor, hence one winner only. By Peeta and Katniss holding hands and them both being from District 12, is a sign of rebellion already because then it seems to the government, the Gamemakers that they want to challenge that and get both of them out of the games alive. It also seems like they are trying to get attention from the audience. With more attention from the audience, they will get more sponsors, which is what they would need to survive in the arena. But also so the audience will feel sympathy towards them because they will then be seen as a pair of lovers. Hence making them act out if Peeta and Katniss were the last ones and had to try to kill each other in order to survive themselves.
With Haymitch saying this in the beginning of the book, the reader can tell that the author wants them to know that rebellion would be a huge part of the book. It is quite clear that they live in a dystopian world and in order to change this, something must take place to get rid of the dystopian characteristics in their world. The government on the other hand would definitely not let this happen. They will do whatever that is in their power to stop this from happening; in the case, eliminate the thorn in their lives.
It seems like everyone already wants to rid themselv es of the lives that they are currently living. I guess that they’re sick of the way that they are living. The government has everyone on a leash where they cannot question anything. This takes away the whole purpose of being human because the people cannot do as they please. They have to be careful about what they do. If they are not careful, they will get punished or even killed and no one in the government would care because to them, the people are just a piece in their game. They don’t need the people; they just need the people to stay in line because if they don’t the government knows that everyone would get out of line and soon, they will fall.
Labels: DJ3, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @8:05 PM!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Hunger Games :O2”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)
The Hunger Games, we learn, are a kind of punishment for the uprising that happened so long ago. I guess the government wants the people of Panem to know that this is what happens if they do not do as they’re told and do their own parts. The games were put into action after the downfall of District 13. And since it was said that the games where punishment for rebellion, I’m guessing that District 13 rebelled against the high power.
Children were picked to fight to their deaths. The government probably picked children to play in this ‘game’ because he wants everyone else to know that there will not be a future of Panem if they were to ever rebel against them.
And I’m guessing that the victor would represent the government because the government is trying to convey the point that the government always win. No matter how the being rebel, no matter what they do, the government would always get the best of them.
Katniss did not choose to be chosen, she didn’t want to, but she knew that she had to save and protect her sister and her family. In other way of putting it, you can also say that she took her sister’s place in the game to challenge the government. She wants them to see that she does not believe in Panem’s way of living nor does she agree with everything that the government stands for.
Collins uses a lot of description in these few sentences. She sums up the games and gives a quick glance of what they are. Her descriptive words bring a whole new meaning. People can see how awful these games are and the type of people that take place in the games. She uses pathos to draw in her audience into thinking how sickening this is that children had to kill and have blood stained onto their hands.
The government, I would say, enjoys the games. Because this is their way of keeping their people in line. They know that no one wants to participate in these games but they have to because there is nothing they can do about it. The government is the
Labels: DJ2, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @9:34 PM!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Hunger Games :O1"When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market...even at home, where I am less pleasant, i avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food shortages, or The Hunger Games. Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be?" (6 .Collins)
It sort of sucks living like them in District 12, actually, every district. Unlike us, it is obvious that they do not have freedom of speech. Katniss knew from experience from her childhood that she cannot say anything bad about the people that run Panem. She learned that bad things will happen because of the way her mother reacted. The fact that her mother wouldn’t let her say anything negative bad about the rulers or her opinion on it proves that District 12, along with the other Districts of Panem, lives in a dystopian world. They live in a specific District that is fenced and barbed-wired off from the rest of the world. They have a specific job in the district, which is coal mining. They have cameras watching them giving them little to do privacy. They live in such a conformed world that they don’t really think of it. They just know that they cannot upset the people at the top of the tier.
This passage specifically sets the rest of the book because we now know that they cannot act out or do anything that is frowned upon. The author Collins uses an allusion in the passage (Katniss bringing up a childhood memory) and focuses a lot on the idea of conformity. As the readers, we can see that District 12 is one of the Districts that is suffering from poverty and the fact that they might end up like District 13 if anything out of the ordinary was to occur, gone and destroyed.
To me and I‘m pretty sure to everyone else, to be human is to have the freedoms that we have. We do as we like and we speak what is on our minds without the fear that something bad is going to happen to use if anyone hears us. But not to the people in District 12. I think it’s obvious that Panem, as a whole, lives in a world where they are not treated like human-beings. Sure they live but they don’t have the rights to express themselves or anything. Come on, they basically live in a city jail, they’re fenced in and are expected to do nothing about that. That’s not how human beings are supposed to live like. To be human, we have to have our alienated rights.
Labels: DJ1, GOVERNMENT, P2, TGH
WHTC @12:32 PM!
