Normally, books have more similarities to reality than most people realize. One example is The Appetite Games by Suzanne Collins; here, Collins writes of a dystopia where a high-handed federal government manages the districts and consequently the people through the fear produced by the yearly appetite games, where each district sends out 2 homage to combat till one victor stays. When reading this book a reader may struggle to unearth the connections to historic events referenced by Collins, however with a much deeper analysis one can see that many elements of life in Panem resemble events that have taken place in reality. Suzanne Collins draws resemblances to reality examples in order to reveal her audience that people need to increase together to topple oppressive federal governments.
History is typically used as a lesson in hopes we do not repeat our mistakes, but likewise as an assisting light to those want to replicate one’s success. Revolutionaries often count on previous successful revolutions when preparing to topple a totalitarian federal government which allows those in charge to see what operated in previous attempts along with what did not work as well. Panem is a federal government specified by injustice and Katniss Everdeen, Collins’ lead character, unknowingly ends up being a beacon of hope for the common individuals and which embarks her on a path to inciting a transformation in order to defeat the Capital in The Appetite Games. Within her book, Collins makes use of lots of resemblances to real world oppression and revolutionary actions. For example, in an interview with James Blasingame at the 2008 National Council of Educators of English Convention, Collins shares that “the socio-political overtones of The Cravings Games were very deliberately created to define present and past world events.” (Blasingame and Collins 2) In this interview Collins confesses that she purposefully made occasions in her book similar to present and previous world events, therefore showing that the purpose of her book is to reveal the audience that a federal government is just as powerful as its’ individuals are weak.
In The Hunger Games, the First Disobedience ended in definite defeat for the people of Panem. With the defeat of the resistance,” the Treaty of Treason, which created the Appetite Games, was implemented on the defeated districts”. In addition to the Appetite Games, “numerous other restrictions were put on the districts to keep them pacified as well as prevent more insurrectionist activities” (First Disobedience). During this period of picking up the pieces a police state, now lead by President Snow, took hold, making certain that everyone contributed and was offered the bare minimum needed to support society. This resembles what is presently happening in North Korea and formerly in China. According to an Interview with Ji Seong-Ho, a North Korean defector, “under [the existing] government, there is no possibility of liberalization” (Seong-Ho 2) Seong-Ho is stating that he believes the current police state of North Korea will never ever loosen up the limitations on its’ people as it would lead to a loss of power for the tyranny. Likewise, in China, “security agents [of Xi Jinping] have started one of the most severe crackdowns in years, which has a variety of activists leaving Beijing.” (China’s Communist Celebration Congress and Web Censorship). China’s usage of censorship is an example of a police state abusing its power over their suppressed people which eventually will keep them in power as individuals will not understand how life in other parts of the world or country are so they will be less likely to rebel versus the present scenario for worry of it getting worse. Collins accurately represents this struggle in her book with the 12 districts. Each district is offered the bare necessities needed to survive and attend to the capital at the essential levels. However, the Capitol assurances that it will have the ability to ensure ongoing power of the districts through specific limitations such as: absence of freedom among districts, battle to find food, and media propaganda that is guaranteed to spread out as each house is equipped with a television. Collins includes the part of the book where Katniss hunts outside of the fence in order to feed her household to reveal that even the smallest breach of the constraints imposed on a controlled group of people has the ability to shift the power far from the federal government and into the hands of the people. Therefore, Collins is attempting to tell her readers that when the government imposes unfair policies that take away basic rights the people ought to fight back nevertheless they can to topple the high-handed government.
Frequently, Collins’ book is seen as a recommendation to the Holocaust since The Appetite Games associates with real-life events of the Holocaust many times within the book. Later in the aforementioned interview, Collins is priced estimate stating that “Dictatorial federal governments have actually also utilized … total removal of the rights of the private” (Blasingame and Collins 2) in order to control certain populations. The elimination of rights in Collins’ book is strikingly comparable to what occurred to the Jewish community in German prisoner-of-war camp during the Holocaust. During The Second World War, Hitler set up labor camps for the Jewish population as a way of revoking their rights and “to take care of undesirable components” (Arendt 55) present in Germany at the time. These labor camps were run by “the SA with [harsh] approaches and had the obvious aim to spread out fear” (Arendt 55). Similarly, the capital of Panem developed the 12 districts after the war as a method of controlling their people by placing them in a form of labor camps. The 12 districts were just formed in response to a failed transformation that lead to the introduction of peacekeepers, as Collins’ references them, which appear to bear a similarity to Hitler’s SA troops with their level of violence to strike horror in the hearts of the transformation. Another example of where Collins’ book straight correlates to events of the Holocaust is propaganda used both by Hitler and the Capitol. It is a well known fact that “Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi celebration, used propaganda to attain his remarkable [control] (Chudnovsky) over the country of Germany. Also, in The Hunger Games, Collins’ developed President Snow to makes use of similar practices when it concerned controlling the districts’ citizens. Whether it remains in reality or fictional Panem, oppressive federal governments will try to utilize propaganda to manage the minds of their topics, therefore decreasing the resistance to their policies and control of the nation. Ultimately, in both of these cases Collins’ is attempting to show her audience that a government can only end up being effective once its’ individuals have become weak. For that reason, in order to topple totalitarian governments individuals need to battle to take back the power which will allow individuals to see past the propaganda and really see what is occurring in their own nation.
Collins purposefully associated her book The Cravings Games to past and present real-world occasions in order to reveal her audience that people remain in fact able to topple a totalitarian government if they want and able to eliminate to regain the power lost when the caught stated government. The “so what” in this book is undoubtedly Collins’ efforts to encourage her audience not to catch a dictatorial government but rather battle versus the oppression to make sure that standard human rights are sustained. Therefore, by writing this book, Collins is stating that every government, totalitarian or not is just able to be an effective as its people are weak meaning that the government just acquires power when it takes it away from its people.
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