Inequality between the Rich and the Poor: Hunger Games - Essay Example

22nd October Inequality between the rich and the poor (Wealth) The Hunger Games is a science fiction novel which was written by Suzanne Collins. The book is concerned with political issues on the nation. Hunger Games is an event which is held annually which a boy and a girl in the 12 districts of that are around capitol compete in the mass media or the television. The young boy and the girl are 12-18 years who are selected from the 12 districts that surrounds capitol. This paper seeks to discuss one of the themes of Hunger Games. The theme that is going to be discussed in length is inequality between rich and poor. Panem is the nation that Hunger Games took place which is in North America. This nation has 12 districts with Capitol being one of the districts that are wealthiest district. All the other 12 districts are poor but District 12 is located in a region where coal is available in plenty, the region was known as Appalachia. In each and every district on annual basis a boy and a girl who are in the age of 12 to 18 are taken where they compete in battle of death where one individual should only remain after the battle. The selection of the participant is done by a lottery method. In the theme of inequality between rich and poor in Panem wealth is concentrated on the hands of few individuals who live in Capitol and other certain districts. This is due to the difference between individuals who are rich and those who are poor. This difference is revealed in the novel but the most notable difference is on food. In those districts which the poor are numerous, many of the individuals do not have anything to eat and they starve while others have plenty in the Panem. Katniss lives in the district 12 and thus as a resident she notes starvation is a common to all the residents of district 12. This means that she has to take all the measures possible so that she can get something for the family using illegally ways. She even goes to an extent of going beyond the borders of the district 12 so that she can get food for her family. Most of the residents in district 12 do not know to hunt and thus they see as if katniss family has a lot while it was just something small. After the hunt Katniss family concludes that if one has something to eat others are luxuries. Katniss, while looking for food learns that peeta’s family has a lot since they have a bakery and thus they are considered as the rich in the district. Katniss is not able to buy the food and thus depends on the leftovers. When she is in Capitol, she finds that everybody who is there is enjoying lavish feast and other prepared dishes, the food is the best and is abundant and thus katniss decides to get a hot chocolate and enjoy it. In the Hunger Game, inequality between rich and poor can also be noted in tessera system where the people or the tribute in the game is going to be selected. In the lottery where the participant are selected randomly without considering whether one is from a rich or a poor district and then fight in the television in battle of death until one individual will remain is not fair. This is due to the fact that the rich will end up being the winners while the poor will end up as the tribute. Since the poor families need tesserae which is an exchange of food and oil and this means that those children form the poor families will have to go for exchange of food in many occasions so that they are going to survive rather than dying for hunger. The wealthier families’ children do not need the tesserae since their family has a lot and thus they will never participate in the tesserae (Roback, 41). This means that the poor family children who have participated in the exchange of food and oil will be picked as the first participants since they have participated in the exchange of food for many times. The rich families have advantage over the poor families since they are normally trained in the Hunger Games and others volunteer. The poor families are not trained by anybody or a volunteer in the game and thus chances of death is high as compared with the rich families. These trained individuals from the wealthy family are going to be stronger, bigger and most important one is that they are going to be better prepared in the Hunger Games which has a lot of tribulations. It likely that the wealthy families’ children are going to survive while the poor children are going to be tributes. For the rich, they depict the game as the honor while they complete it while for the poor they term it as death sentence since they are the poor and they are the majority in the 12 districts. In the game, it is obvious that the surrounding districts are exploited so that they will remain loyal to the wealthy districts and to other individuals. The surrounding district work hard and they still live in the poverty. They produce a lot of food and other resources like coal but still inequality exists among the rich and the poor. The lesson that I have learnt from the theme of inequality between the rich and the poor in the novel the Hunger Games is that killing is against human nature. For example it is portrayed by katniss when she participated in the game even though she came from a poor family she is a skilled hunter and a hero in the game. Katniss became a hero when he went to the Capitol city where she came a close peetar’s family who are rich and they fall in love with peetar. When Katniss participated in the game she killed a girl named Glimmer and from that day she was filled with horror where she even throws himself over the body of the dead Glimmer due to shock. She narrates how killing a fellow human being who is from our own species is bad and thus it is against God and nature (Sellers, 50). The second lesson that we learn from the theme of inequality between the rich and poor is that wealth makes us less compassionate this is illustrated by the fact that the Capitol district is the richest among the 12 districts in Panem. The residents who live there are individuals of high standards and this makes them to deliberately misuse or keep the others district in obsolete poverty and this shows lack of compassionate among those individuals who are rich. The third lesson we learn from the theme of inequality between the rich and poor in the novel the Hunger Games is that people are motivated to help others by empathy not reason or number. If one values other people in the society, it is important to help them due to the sympathy and not because of the number of their population in the districts they reside. This was encouraged by one of the character in the novel Hunger Games who is a traumatized mentor because of what was happening in Panem. The fourth lesson learnt from the theme is that power flows from social and other emotional intelligence and thus it can not flow from strength or viciousness. Writer’s memo The paper has exposed me to the challenges that the poor faces under the hands of the rich class. The most favorite part of my paper is the way the poor viewed the competition as a death while the rich are aware they will win. The paper improves my analytical skills and my writing goals is to get more skills also in critical analysis. Some of the strengths of my paper includes good flow of ideas, comparison of the two social groups and motivating the reader through the use of simple but appropriate words. Work Cited Roback, D. Mockingjay to Conclude the Hunger Games Trilogy. Macmillan. New York. 2010. Print. Sellers, J. A dark horse breaks out: the buzz is on for Suzanne Collinss YA series debut. New York: New York. 2008. Print. Read More