intoduction
People around you are slowly starving, even your ribs show through your skin. Many of you haven’t eaten in days. Nearby you see a man without his right hand, he has stolen from someone. Somewhere life must be better, but how can you know? No one knows what goes on outside your area. The government in the hunger games has similar ways of staying in power as many of our current governments.
limiting infromtion
One way the government stays in power is by limiting information flow. In “The Hunger Games” you aren't allowed to leave your district. This prevents people from learning about other districts and how they live. In North Korea, you are forbidden to film or watch t.v. if you do, you will be locked up and never let out. This keeps the government in power by not letting people know what life is like outside their area, or district.
They have crazy and cruel punishments, somethings are even punishable by death.
Insane laws
Another way the government stays in power is by making people fear them. They have crazy and cruel punishments, somethings are even punishable by death. If you insult the government in North Korea, you will be put in jail. In Saudi Arabia, if you get caught stealing, you will have your right hand amputated. Often, your family would be punished to, because of guilt by association.“Who cares what they do to me? What really scares me is what they might do to my mother and prim, how my family might suffer now because of my impulsiveness” (Collins, p. 103)This makes people afraid to stand up against the government.
Poor Health
The government also stays in power by not taking good care of their people. In North Korea, people of low songbun are often starving. Children beg for money and food in the streets. People of higher songbun live good lives; they have three meals a day and more luxurious items and food. In “The Hunger Games” people in the smaller, less important districts are left to fend for themselves. “Starvation Is not an uncommon fate in District 12. Who hasn’t seen the victims?” (Collins, p.28). Elders and children starve to death. This leaves people too weak to rebel. Even the districts themselves are divided. “Suddenly a voice was screaming at me and I looked up to the baker’s wife, telling me to move on and how sick she was of having those brats from the Seam pawing through her trash.” (Collins, p. 30).
Our governments have ways of staying in power similar to those in the hunger games.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. NY, NY: Scholastic, 2008. Print.