Suffering and Stardom

In class, we talked a lot about how killing was represented and explained in The Hunger Games and how many of the characters were more desensitized to death and killing because of the society in which they were raised. Suffering and killing isn’t just common in Panem, however, but is a source of amusement and pleasure for people in the Capital and the richer Districts.

            Towards the beginning of the novel before Katniss leaves to fight in the Games, Gale is able to talk to her possibly for the last time. Katniss expresses her concern with not knowing how to kill people, only animals to which Gale responds, “How different can it be, really?” (40). This sentence is short but powerful and demonstrates the desperation and necessity these teenagers have. Killing people for survival and for the amusement of others is incomprehensible. But, they are powerless against the government and know the situation can’t be changed. Katniss realizes, “The awful thing is that if I can forget that they’re people, it will be no different at all” (40). Throughout the Games, however, it becomes clear that Katniss can’t forget that the people in the arena with her are people – not “players”. Her alliance with Rue, Peeta, and even in the final scene of killing Cato show this. Before she kills Cato, Katniss thinks “the word he’s trying to say is please. Pity, not vengeance, sends an arrow flying into his skull” (341). After Cato without thinking has violently killed so many, Katniss still had pity for him and saw him as human. This act also shows her rebelling against the Capital who wants a gruesome and bloody death, because she ends it with a single arrow.

            While Katniss as the protagonist can see the humanity in people, the Capital, Gamemakers, and so many others still find the Games entertaining. Killing and suffering becomes a show and there’s a large connection between the Games being treated like a reality T.V. show in today’s society. While the severity, horror, and murder of the Hunger Games is not reflective of reality T.V., many other aspects are. Society is entertained by the suffering of others and Katniss along with the other “tributes” are forced to change themselves to appear more entertaining in order to get sponsors, or support like many modern celebrities in the media must do. The message of losing one’s identity to get others to like you more and the way in which others feel better about themselves by proving superiority are consequences of not just the Hunger Games, but today’s media as well.