{"id":32523,"date":"2023-08-25T04:55:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T04:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/questions\/critical-essay-the-hunger-games-book-by-suzanne-collins-book-1-society-culture-as-antagonist\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T04:55:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T04:55:59","slug":"critical-essay-the-hunger-games-book-by-suzanne-collins-book-1-society-culture-as-antagonist","status":"publish","type":"questions","link":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/questions\/critical-essay-the-hunger-games-book-by-suzanne-collins-book-1-society-culture-as-antagonist\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Essay: The Hunger Games Book by Suzanne Collins Book 1. Society\/ Culture as Antagonist"},"content":{"rendered":"

What should my essay look like?
\nYour essay will have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
\nBeginning:
\nYour opening, even for the shortest paper, will contain a thesis statement outlining the point of
\nyour paper. This is where a paper like this differs from your close reading exercises. You need to
\ndevelop an idea that connects your analysis of the texts you choose. This could be thematic, it
\ncould be about form, or it might be about style. Your thesis statement will identify this cohering
\nidea. This is a statement that outlines what is at stake in this essay: the what; the how; and the
\nwhy of your paper. In short \u2013 tell me what it is that the essay is trying to do, how it will go about
\nthis, and why I might wish to read any further! So – a thesis statement does three things: <\/p>\n

1) WHAT? We observe something in the text that warrants further investigation. <\/div>\n
2) HOW? How is it made apparent through the text itself that there is something here of
\ninterest? <\/div>\n
3) WHY? Why might this reveal more about the text to us \u2013 why is it worth making this
\nobservation?
\nSee the example below for how one might begin an essay of this length.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
-For this paper you should make use of keywords and terminology from our lecture discussion
\n(without repeating lecture content!) alongside critical analysis and close reading to respond to a
\nspecific prompt (chosen from those below). (I will attach lecture notes to make some connections from thesis and quotes\/scene in the book. ATTACHMENT NAME: )<\/div>\n
-Refer to
\nsecondary criticism, in the form of a book, article or review (not Wikipedia or similar). Your paper
\nmust include analysis of The Hunger Games and refer to \u201cThe Lottery.\u201d by Shirley Jackson (I will upload a pdf of the short story). The
\nmost logical way to begin this process is to find a passage or scene from the text(s) that speaks to
\nyour selected subject, and use this as a way to introduce your thesis. Remember that a thesis is a
\nstatement that is debatable, meaning that you will argue your case through the paper. If you are
\nhaving trouble coming up with a thesis topic and formulating your paper, or finding suitable
\nsecondary material please don\u2019t hesitate to me – in advance. WARNING: Do not repeat material
\nfrom lecture \u2013 you may use lecture materials as a reference, but make sure you give it your own
\ninterpretation. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lecture notes that you can use as a source and to utilize terminology from these notes: <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

THE HUNGER GAMES: <\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    IDEA OF TRIBUTE\/ SACRIFICE OF YOUNG PEOPLE\/ YEARLY RITUAL \u2013seems it comes from greek mythology <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Young innocence to be sacrificed is an important way to control because the youth are the future. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      \n
    • \n

      Ability to take someone\u2019s child and sacrifice them tells oppressed people that power is absolute <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    • \n

      Other idea more complex comes from the Roman Empire: <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Idea of the capital coming from our own capital building in Washington DC (traditional seat of power) <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Imperial Rome was the capital in hell <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      Collins draws\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        \n
      • \n

        Loss of liveliness of creativity in a way that\u2019s very similar Orwell\u2019s text <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      • \n

        \u201cControlling your own way of living is diminished\u201d Juvenal, satire X <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Some terms to think about in Collin\u2019s novel The Hunger Games:<\/span><\/p>\n

        -\u201dThe evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease\u201d -Marcus Tullius Cicero<\/span><\/p>\n

          \n
        • \n

          So we see here the capital using the idea of spectacle and control to the purpose of media in particular to divert people from their actual hardships and maintain control over them <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n


          <\/p>\n

          Collin describes the inspiration for the story as:<\/span><\/p>\n

            \n
          • \n

            \u201cI was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage when Katniss\u2019s story came to me\u201d-Suzanne Collins <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

              \n
            • \n

              For her this came from this idea sort of simulation of reality TV takes part in. and how that blurs the lines between the real and the simulated. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            • \n

              \u201cOne night I\u2019m sitting there flipping around and on one channel there\u2019s a group of young people competing for, I don’t know, money maybe? And on the next, there\u2019s a group of young people fighting an actual war. And I was tired, and the lines began to blur in this very unsettling way, and I thought of this story.\u201d -Suzanne Collins <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                \n
              • \n

                Slippage and idea of what entertains us and what diverts us <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

              • \n

                And if we cant come to the point where the street culture media is able to control what we consume and the way we consume it to the point where we don\u2019t really can\u2019t distinguish the difference between these two forms of entertainment. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                  \n
                • \n

                  As it were that deeply disturbing fact of seeing death it\u2019s something that can be turned into a spectacle<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n

                • \n

                  Reality TV is ultimately silly phrase because groups, people desperate for fame in the most contrived and artificial situations. So theres that kind of sense that the artificial being played off against the real that we know that reality TV isn\u2019t real and yet we seem to consume it as though it offers us some vision of reality.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                • \n

                  We see contemporary television functioning as a space through which emotional responses segmented audiences in niche markets can be regulated and repurposed so that we as consumers of the spectacle itself are being manipulated through the things that we watch. !!!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n


                  <\/p>\n

                  Suzanne Collins: \u201cThe Hunger Games is a reality television program. An extreme one, but that\u2019s what it is\u2026Then there\u2019s the voyeuristic thrill- watching people being humiliated, or brought to tears, or suffering physically- which I find very disturbing. There\u2019s also the potential for desensitizing the audience, so that when they see real tragedy playing out on, say the news, it doesn\u2019t have the impact it should.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

                    \n
                  • \n

                    Saturation of reality is problematic for Collins <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                  • \n

                    The games in the novel are commodified and consumption of the games carries on long after and before the games <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                      \n
                    • \n

                      Arenas as dark sites \/\/ disaster tourism <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                    • \n

                      Popular destinations for capital residents to visit vacation, go for a free, watch the games, take part in reenactments <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                    • \n

                      Food is excellent\/\/ becomes symbolic of all sorts of different sorts of consumption in the text <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                        \n
                      • \n

                        Pg145: \u201cthe arenas are historic sites preserved after the Games\/ Popular destinations for Capitol residents to visit, vacation. Go for a month, rewatch the Games, tour the catacombs, visit the sites where the deaths took place. You can even take part in reenactments. They say the food is excellent\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n

                      • \n

                        The other thing for Collins: experience of having a parent sent off to war \u201cThe Lottery\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                          \n
                        • \n

                          The Vietnam draft lottery televised live, in December 1969. On YT – disturbing segment where we imagine young man and family watching it and if your name called out, you are required to show up to duty <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                        • \n

                          It was statistically shown that young men that were chosen by lottery to go and fight in Vietnam were more often to see frontline action that those who volunteered <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                            \n
                          • \n

                            So there\u2019s a strange kind of concept of tribute being folded onto this idea and certainly Collins is drawing on that<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                          • \n

                            We have this lottery that\u2019s literally about life and death and it\u2019s being televised live <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                          • \n

                            The reason it was televised live was to avoid suspicion about its fairness but the other side to this is this media spectacle (fate of the individual bond) <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n

                          • \n

                            Opening chapter of novel: <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                              \n
                            • \n

                              (don\u2019t read this novel in terms of character study at all, what acorns does is revolutionary in terms of what is why a fiction is that she has given us a hugely successful novel, a young woman protagonist who takes on the role that it perhaps normally reserved or expected and assumed to be a masculine one) <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                            • \n

                              Star power to 2-3 central figures has clouded the issue of how this novel is read (not interested in love triangle, interested in dystopian representation) <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                            • \n

                              Important thing about Katniss in opening chapter is:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                                \n
                              • \n

                                We get that sense of who it is, a subversive figure, one who can cross boundaries physically . she\u2019s able to step out of the district itself and go hunting and then she also moves through the black market and things like that <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                              • \n

                                Katniss is a progressive character <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                              • \n

                                The most progressive thing about the novel for the genre fiction that it is, is that it advocates for kind of an idea of collective revolution for young people on a large scale <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                              • \n

                                Idea of Ritual: <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                                  \n
                                • \n

                                  The reaping, is a powerful term because it suggests a harvest<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

                                    \n
                                  • \n

                                    In this case, the harvest of it is that the bodies of young people (idea of having young innocent people be the tributes allows the capital to enforce division among different district) making sure that there is no opportunity for collective action <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n

                                    \t<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

                                    <\/span><\/p>\n

                                    (END OF LECTURE NOTES) <\/div>\n
                                    <\/div>\n
                                    **For this essay you will use the prompt of: <\/div>\n
                                    *Often in dystopian literature, society\u2014culture\u2014is the antagonist. Analyze this conceptualization in relation to The Hunger Games?*
                                    <\/div>\n
                                    -Again, use direct scenes and quotes from the book 1 to argue how society and culture of the games (the rich people who assemble the games vs the poor people who have no choice but to participate) is the antagonist. <\/div>\n
                                    -Please do NOT repeat lecture material or explain what happens in The Hunger Games, only strictly analytical writing. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
                                    -I have attached a copy of The Hunger Games book as well. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                    What should my essay look like? Your essay will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Beginning: Your opening, even for the shortest paper, will contain a thesis statement outlining the point of your paper. This is where a paper like this differs from your close reading exercises. You need to develop an idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"disciplines":[186],"paper_types":[],"tagged":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/32523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/questions"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/32523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=32523"},{"taxonomy":"paper_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper_types?post=32523"},{"taxonomy":"tagged","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tagged?post=32523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}