The Aspect of Violence in the World of The Hunger Games - Assignment Example

?The Aspect of Violence in the World of The Hunger Games Introduction Popular culture has been widely discussed today as it reiteratedly exposes the contemporary state of humanity in this dynamic world. This paper seeks to construct a critical investigation into the intersections of popular culture with the political, social, and cultural issues of 2012 American science fiction adventure film, The Hunger Games. Particularly, such approach will focus on the aspect of violence in the plot of the said movie which will be framed based on Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” as a conceptual lens. His views will be used to expose issues or problems in the society and to help people better fathom the critical questioning embedded in The Hunger Games. Critical Investigation of the Aspect of Violence The Hunger Games conceals the issue of violence by using a form of language that deters audience to know the real meaning of it. Orwell defines this as “staleness of imagery” or “the lack of precision” (2). Seneca Crane, the game-maker, has been presented with such a vague language that mitigates the level of tension despite its nature. The film commences without tackling the mechanics of the game, neither how it is being played nor how it continued that long in their nation. As a matter of fact, the film itself is a paradigm of a dying metaphor. According to Orwell, there are modern metaphors that are “technically dead,” concealed “being an ordinary word,” which can “generally be used without loss of vividness” (2). The Hunger Games, as an example, is by far presenting a metaphor about the aspect of hunger, but the mere fact that the plot offers only two pathways, death or survival, it has to be something vague, but is vivid. Therefore, even if the audience sees the violence of the movie, they are moved along the side of temporal unconsciousness. However, as they gone through viewing the movie, they will realize the issue of violence that is concealed in the title of the movie, may it be a game of death. In the lens of the “verbal false limbs or operators,” some contemporary works have “trouble of picking out appropriate verbs and nouns,” simultaneously providing “each sentence with extra syllables” resulting it to appear symmetric (Orwell 3). For instance, Katniss and Peeta, as the protagonists in the movie, have been portrayed with such an ineffective and unsoundly utterances, such that their moves in every act posit a very interesting motion, but their lines pose no strong connection with it. This is a clear manifestation that their roles have been presented with utterance that consolidates the “elimination of key verbs” (Orwell 3). Eliminating key verbs by replacing or complementing with another word in a sentence will deter the strong meaning of the word. Selena Crane’s role is also depicted as one with utterance that replaces “simple conjunctions and prepositions,” which Orwell described as a tool to appear symmetric (3). This approach deters the level of thrill and the strong manifestation of the public with the words used. Selena Crane’s role is one that utters a lot of pretentious diction. This is coined by Orwell as he relates this to the “increase in slovenliness and vagueness” of the statement being spoken because of using inappropriate words to represent a feeling, or an idea (4). It can be very alarming as even if they posit a very attractive and enhanced tone of voice and diction, their delineation still lacks the preciseness of the meaning of the word because of making their utterance more interesting to hear than to absorb in the mindset of the audience. In the aspect of violence hidden in meaningless words, Orwell depicts that language is used in an “improper way” as differing opinions from divergent writers must be using their own words as they also have the so-called “private definition” (4). In this kind of approach, Orwell is trying to depict that any works written in former times can become less concrete because modern writers cannot tabulate their ideas in an exact and detailed approach the way such works were written by the original writer (5). On the other hand, The Hunger Games is full of modernism, whereby the way the novel book was written has now turned into something overstated, but has unable to sustain its precision. This may become common to writers as they come across pertinent approaches to making scripts, which one can be the use of “stale metaphors, similes, and idioms” to save themselves from being vague (6). The Hunger Games has used idiomatic expressions to conceal the aspect of violence. The game itself, which is played through reaping the representative of each of the twelve districts, is an act of violence as the nation, Panem, engages into an annual event that all districts cannot exempt themselves off. In fact, the film has visually presented the game as indisputably a momentous event from which the gathering of the public is obliged to witness a game of death. The characters uttered their lines with clear depiction of vagueness, which eventually posits a definition deterrent tool. It must be noted that “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity” (Orwell 8). Altogether, the violence is an outward sign that is concealed by the film through its narrative aspect. Beginning with its title, and from the inception of the movie to the end of it, it has nonetheless deterred the preciseness of the meaning of the characters’ utterances because of unclear depiction, wrong choice of verbs, improper use of nouns, conjunctions, and prepositions that can way too far be imitated by the next generations. The movie is full of passive voice, whereas if possible, always use the active when applicable (Orwell 9), and the script posits a meaningless sentence concealed in a very interesting utterances with false diction. Conclusion This paper sought to critically investigate the aspect of violence in the world of The Hunger Games using Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” Altogether, this paper validates that the movie is full of modern writing techniques that are emulated and formed from one generation to another, and no character exempts in the movie, that uses clear language with simple words, precise definition, proper use of figures of speech, with strong verb, and eliminate vagueness in the whole plot. Violence is concealed in a momentous event, Hunger Games, which politics considers leisure while deemed as a violent conduct for the poor. Clearly the movie deters the audience to find preciseness of the meaning of the issue of the society today, which is the lack of democracy. Work Cited Orwell, George. “Fifty Orwell Essays: Politics and the English Language.” Gutenberg. Gutenberg Australia, Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. Read More