The future of the United States, according to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games novel. Is filled with bleak, rigid and never-ending misery. In other words Suzanne Collins picked a world in the future. Formally North America but now called Panem that has many dystopian properties. Dystopia can be best defined as a society or world. As a whole that is the complete opposite of a perfect world, which is a utopia. The distinctiveness of a dystopian world commonly include. A strong central totalitarian government which has complete control over the people it rules lives. Elite that are the minority of the society, huge long suffering and poverty of the rest of the population. Within the Hunger Games novel Panem is separated into thirteen districts along with the very wealthy Capitol.
The closer a district is to the Capitol, starting chronologically with the first district, the more affluent the district. However, the furthest away from the Capitol a district is, which may include districts eight through thirteen, the poorer the people (Blasingame, James Review of The Hunger Games). What may arise concern for readers of this tale is that two young adults from each district, ages twelve through eighteen, are picked at random, which occurs at the reaping, to fight to the death. This event is the Hunger Games, of which was bestowed so generously on the people of Panem almost a century ago due to their ancestors’ rebellious spirits turning against the Capitol.
What will also further indicate to the reader as to how the world of Panem is a dystopian world includes the fact that Panem has a Capitol of wealthy individuals whom have an abundance of resources. By disparity, the thirteen districts that represent a caste system where a increasing level of poverty occurs the further out the district is from the Capitol, the altitude of poverty elevates. What else makes Panem a dystopia include the Peace Keepers discipline the people of the districts with extreme force, very often resulting in death. With these facts in mind many people wonder why dystopian literature has become so fashionable.
The main topic of this discussion is that this type of literature mainly attracts young adults and even adults, whom fear the state of the economy, student loans for when they cannot generate enough scholarships for college, the siege of environmental disasters and the tragedies within the on- going war in Iraq. The dystopia present in the Hunger Games evidently mirror our nation’s problems indirectly mainly through acts of rebellion with the characters Katniss, Gale and Peeta before and during the Hunger Games taking place.
One recognition as to why dystopian literature has become more important now is that detail that young adults are extremely worried about the state of the economy. The United States along with other countries such as Japan and Europe experienced a financial crisis around 2008 to the present. Many people lost successful businesses, mortgages and homes, employment and their life savings. People in families such as these turn to dystopian literature, like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, to reflect on what their social and financial situation is. More or less they hope to come to the realization that their situation could become as bad as the people of Panem, separated into districts and ruled by a totalitarian government.
