Hunger games political commentary

And a direct consequence of war. As she imagines what might happen to humanity, we relate it to our current political, socioeconomic, racial, gender, cultural and ecological systems. Collins wanted to warn young people about the ravages of war, but she has extended the reflection far beyond it. As it is impossible to understand war without understanding the impacts of political and power abuse; of social, economic, gender and racial injustices; of voyeuristic controlling media; of the lack of opposition and expression against authority; and of human damages to the natural world.

If so, how? The Hunger Games: Class Inequality. I love how you portray Katniss as both a feminist and a sexualized pawn of the Capitol. The politics in this is so vague, you cannot be sure. I remember someone I know criticizing the series for not being clearer and taking a particular stance but I disagreed and now I can see why.

Thank you and glad you liked it! Yes Katniss is both at the same time which makes her so ambivalent, strong and vulnerable af the same time. And yes, ita definitely smarter for the author not to choose a political side, yet Collins still succeeds in transmitting her ideas and warning the readers against the danger of extreme politics. I enjoyed the movie because, having read the books, I could spot the subtle cues the director left to signal character changes the books made clear.

The closest contemporary government system analogs are that Capitol represents totalitarian fascism, District 13 represents totalitarian socialism, and both are pretty terrible. I saw the first film recently. I saw nothing in the film to indicate a political slant somehow different from the novels themselves. The core story is dealing with oppression and the resulting human costs of rebellion.

The overarching theme is of freedom and autonomy vs. Liberal Hollywood always seems to want to turn entertainment into some sort of leftist political message. They tried it with Avatar. What the audience saw in Avatar was a science fiction thriller with great computer graphics — nothing more.

What the audience sees in Hunger games is a hot young sex object in Jennifer Lawrence playing the role of a super hero. There is no more message here than in a typical Spider Man or Darth Vader movie. You would never hear someone refer to Wolverine or Superman or Spiderman as a sex object — so why the hell does it automatically become so when the protagonist is a woman?

This is exactly why we still need feminism… People like you who cannot even see a strong, influential and driven woman without thinking about turning her into an object. Unfortunately males tend to mentally undress females. Maybe we are hard-wired that way to ensure procreation?. Males can easily be turned on by visual stimuli alone, hence we describe what we see.

Being sexually attracted to a woman based on visual cues alone, cant be conducive to equality, I realize this. No amount of bra-burning will change this. Women like to be treated as equal, yet they still like it when a guy holds the door open for them..

I guess when ancient hard-wiring meets modern idealism, conflict ensues.. Women like to be treated as people, individuals, and men like to be treated like individuals as well. The fact that you are generalisng all men and all women based on your own expereince is another reason why we still need feminism.

Feminism is about equality for all, regardless of sex — it is about being seen as a person before a sex. Some men only see boobs, luckily some have ears as well. And that animal instinct stuff is bull. Look at some tribes where women are topless just like the men — the men still manage to go about thier business without jumping on the women, because sexualisation is to do with society, not nature. Your inability to see beyond the entertainment value in either movie is disturbing and you can only speak for you.

Extremely awesome but slightly scary at the same time. To those who are confused to exactly what The Hunger Games depicts, let me outline the political spectrum for you. Government power decreases to the right, increases to the left. They just tend to be used with the same forms of government. Whereas Republics rule of the law , Democracies rule of the majority , and governments of that nature are on the right, as the government has less power. The United States, for example, was supposed to be a Capitalistic Republic as formed by the Founding Fathers, however, it is now morphing into more of a Socialistic Democracy.

So, the theme in the Hunger Games is an authoritative Utopian government, which is far left-wing on the political spectrum. Although this post is very old and no one will probably read my reply, I feel I have to correct this extremely inaccurate post. Government power does not determine right or left. The modern view has authoritarianism vs. There are libertarian liberals and authoritarian conservatives. In fact, historically, conservatives were more inclined to support state power and liberals opposed to it.

Monarchy and despotism are classical conservative forms of government, whereas anarchy is historically connected with liberals. Fundamentally, conservatism is about maintaining the status quo or returning to an earlier status quo and keeping power and control where it is. Respect for authority and obedience to authority figures are a central part of conservative philosophy.

American conservatives display a bit of a split personality by claiming to be the anti-government party while maintaining respect for traditional authoritarian institutions such as the police, the military and the church. Liberalism is about questioning authority and the traditional approaches.

Liberals are willing to experiment and make changes in institutions and social structures with a goal of improving life for ordinary people. As with all experiments, the results is not always success, but the point is to keep an open mind and an optimistic attitude. It was this spirit of liberalism which created the United States. Yep, in the movies.

In the USA, to looks like the relentless rich and their blind sheep are the only survivors. Love the article! I often felt that the message went hand in hand with the political but maybe I was approaching the trilogy all wrong.

No one really wins when there is war in the first place. For me, what makes a great literature or art is that ability to open any dialogue about any issue. The divine vs. After reading the entire Hunger Games trilogy, I see Katniss character faced with this question of divine vs. Throughout the series, Katniss needs both to survive- as we all basically do.

There are even desparate points where Katniss questions needing either of them. In the end, when her life-threatening struggles are over and she is left with just how to cope with horrible memories and the rest of her life, she is able to finally accept that divine love Peeta and even dare to hope by bringing her own children into the world.

Politics, war, power, greed — result in human suffering and loss of innocent life. Humanity depends on a combination of basic survival skills and unconditional love for each other. Its the progressive end game is what it is.

Peace keepers, social elitism, class controls, food regulation, regulation on every form of existence, powerful central goverment. And lots and lots of distractions with pop culture. Movie was ok. Pretty predictable. Only slightly a parody of our world, though. My children are in their twenties.

Sometimes I envy that. Maybe I care too much? The heroes of the Hunger Games were the marketing department. The director did a great job as usual considering the material and talent. The addition of Woody in the movie only added to the inability of the leads to control a scene. Politically speaking if either party connects with the film via self interest of a wagging finger, it only goes to show nothing truly ignorant happens until after the sale.

I taught the book to high school students and we discussed it pretty closely. Nobody, myself included, thought it had much to do with current politics. The book, far more than the movie, focuses very closely on the ways power can be abused. For the power elite, the danger is that Katniss will undermine an effective divide and conquer strategy. Honestly, health insurance, religion, taxation, ethnic minorities, economic redistribution — these hot button topics from real life American debate — seem pretty far removed from the storyline.

I think taxation and income inequality are pretty central themes to the books. I understood the central problem behind this movie, and all the dystopian young adult novels in existence.

It is bread and circuses…hot teen girls having sex in a chaste way, of course and facing danger that they never really have to confront directly. And like most movies about Evil Empires the Star Wars films included , there is no explanation as to why so many people support the Dark Side or Darkseid, the empire or its supreme leader, because that might muddy the simplistic melodrama of it all. Oh please to define the story as nothing more than sexualized encouragement and to go as far as saying danger they never have to confront directly are you serious, they have no choice but to confront nothing but danger!

Anyone who was paying any attention could see that Katniss regularly exhibits both conservative and liberal tendencies she has an affinity for hunting, she abhors the torture perpetrated by the Capitol, she is self-sufficient and responsible, but she still sacrifices for Prim, Rue, and Peeta , perhaps it is not as simple as you all are arguing.

As I see it, there are two major motivators in The Hunger Games. The first is clearly an exploration of gender, and what that means. Katniss assumes the fatherly role by providing and protecting for her family. She is juxtaposed with an emotional, and mostly weak, character in Peeta. In almost every way Peeta falls into the damsel-in-distress character seen in every fantasy movie ever.

Katniss literally has to help him walk, all while doing everything else and making sure both of them survive. This is a take on the female condition and how every detail and every move is judged and criticized. Think of a woman picking her clothes, doing her nails, her make-up, her shoes, etc. Only in this case Katniss plays them like a fiddle, not the other way around.

But on the other hand she is completely committed to her family and will do anything for them. Desperation has forced her to become a survivor, but in the midst of awful hunger and poverty she still clings to the things that make us human. This is in staunch contrast to the people of the Capitol who represent the exact opposite, a pampered and leisurely society that has no conception of desperation.

The Capitol is not described in any detail about its procedures or political alignment, because it is irrelevant to the story. Katniss is the story, the Capitol is just what motivates her, hence why the book is written and told from her perspective.

The book and the movie explore the human condition in these two very different worlds. In the end, this is not some cheap political diatribe. The Capitol is not a description of the privileged 1st world and the districts are the developing world. It is not an overbearing, yet somehow socialist, dictatorship trying to symbolize the evils of liberalism. So seriously, give it a rest. Very interesting.

This movie appears to unwittingly express that same theme: no idea who the real enemy is. Maybe all of USA faction wars will soon inherit a little bit of hell when the entire globe weighs in. The author kept politics out of her books? Early in the 1st book there is the discussion of the electrified fence surrounding each District.

The electrified fence was supposedly there to keep the people from harm from the outside. However the people in the book looked at the fence as a joke meaning they could starve to death in safety. In the US we have a powerful military to defend our country but we have trouble getting health care and other help to the people who need it.

One of the last lines in the movie A Few Good Men is spoken by one of the Marines that were on trial. He says that they forgot who they were supposed to protect, meaning that they were supposed to protect the weak. I think another possible interesting reading of the political implications of the work would be to run it through Foucault, and look at how power is exercised in this world through the panoptic effects of the media.

It seemed to me that the critique of the media was maybe the most contemporary and pointed. If my kids were watching these movies, there would be an outcry about it not doing them any favors. Totally objective and unbiased…not. On another note: Personal failure in fame and fortune is not that bad when you consider the dictatorship that some people are living under the foot of-unless you are the foot?

Silent, fearful, and afraid to stand up for yourself and your family is no way to live. It is the response. This movie transcends age as far as young adult VS adult of all the movies that inspire well nothing but product placement and worse that the state of things is as it should be completely ignores the story!

I have not read the book, but enjoyed the first move a lot more than I expected when it popped up free on Netflix streaming. Maybe the books and the movies are just entertainment and not intended to have a political message for one side or the other.

I much preferred Battle Royale actually. Deliciously satirical and combining that classic Japanese teen emotion with graphic but cartoonish violence. The film seemed like quite a profound statement on being a teenager to me.

Reading all these comments. One thing comes into mind: One of the signs of good literature is that it allows a variety of equally valid interpretations. I never read the books, but I did watch the movies. But I did watch the movies again searching for political undertones.

What a load of rubbish. The Hunger Games is the only teenage novel written in the Twenty-first century that is politically minded! I think you should be more open minded and read more, I can list plenty of teenage works that engage with political concepts. Get off your high horse! I aboslutely adore the Hunger Games and appreciate the films and novels as great art. I have watched the Hunger Games series a dozen times and never really have seen the environmental aspect of it.

The world is becoming corrupt in the image that each country is perfect in their own way. Money and control will never disappear, the need of it will only grow.

Are we blind to the very fact that our entertainment today is elevating due to popular demand, and soon we won't have control? Shows like Fear Factor and Ninja Warrior are only primitive examples of violent, revolting, and action-based reality TV. People need to take a step back and realize that if these types of exaggerated media were to evolve into something bigger and a bit more ludicrous -- based on historical data showing the magnitude of violence in films and video games today -- who says that a reality TV show in which kids come together and fight to the death is really out of modern-day society's reach?

Some teens find obvious links between the event of the Hunger Games and events in the present or in history, not just reality TV. Although some teenagers agree with the views presented in the book, others may not fully understand the points being made. Still others disagree and instead believe that readers who are interested enough can spot the book's underlying messages.

Parker freshman Molly McGaan. The Hunger Games trilogy is an exciting collection of books and a story that will have the reader hooked. But next time you open up one of the books, do me a favor and try to pick out the messages displayed between the lines. People should wake up to the inevitable messages being screamed out from within.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death among all teenagers, but homicide is the leader for black male teens. If you couple these facts with the ubiquitous American culture of violence -- the prevalence of handguns, violent imagery in books, films, games, and music -- most contemporary teenagers accept the violence in The Hunger Games as near reality.

Note that at the end of Harry Potter , Harry and the teenage students at Hogwarts School engaged in a battle to the death with Lord Voldemort and his allies. The sixth theme in The Hunger Games is revolution. This is only hinted at in the movie -- there are scenes of fighting in District 11 after Rue is killed.

But, in Mockingjay , the final book of the trilogy, Katniss leads a rebellion against the rulers of Panem. We're beginning to hear muttering about revolution in the US: states seceding from the union, Americans withdrawing to survivalist enclaves in the deep woods, Tea Party radicals eliminating of the federal government, and so forth.

Sixty-three years ago, Orwell's dystopian novel turned out to be prophetic. Will that be true of The Hunger Games? Decide for yourself and "May the odds be ever in your favor. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? Main Menu U. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism.

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