Mohammed Alazmi

Prof. Rebecca Lawson

English 113B
19 April 2015
The Government Control
An exaggerated report of the control of authority has been shown in the Hunger Games
novels written by Suzanne Collins called the Hunger Games. This story has all the elements of
control that the government of the United States of America is now a days employing to control
the minds of the people. These control strategies have been explained in the following
paragraphs.
The first control strategy that the Capitol in the country Panem employs is controlling
through hunger itself. The Capitol causes the people to give away all their harvested food and
grains to the Capitol and lets them live in extreme hunger and poverty. Letting them starve and
live in hunger causes them to be ignorant towards the deeper issues of being enslaved by the
government. The people are hence controlled in a way that delays their uprising against the
government and lets the Capitol enslave them for a little longer.
Fear is another important strategy employed in the novel by the Capitol. They called peace
keepers spread fear and violence to those who show even the smallest sign of an uprising or
rebellion against the crime of the government. This fear is what keeps the people of all districts
captured and kept within the controls of their evil authority and thus takes away their freedom.
The Capitol causes extreme lack of communication amongst the districts and keeps them
unaware of the problems being faced by other districts. This lack of communication causes lack
of bonding amongst the districts and hence takes their focus away from rebel against the
authoritative government. Thus it is seen throughout the story that districts are kept in extreme
separation and poverty making them insensitive to each others feelings. An element of
preference is also purposely surrounded amongst the districts in that the Capitol favors the
District 1 and a few other districts by providing them with wealth and food. This causes a
competition amongst the people of districts and instead of connection and standing up against the
cruel government, the districts turn against each other.
The Capitol conducts the Hunger games yearly in addition to the strong fear caused by
the peace keeping activists. The Capitol makes each district give away a teenage boy and a girl
to get killed in hunger games not directly by the government, but by each other in hopes of
survival. This killing causes a state of war and fight between the districts causing contempt
amongst them. These games serve as an ultimate display of the authority that government
possesses over the people of 12 districts. Each year at the reaping, the poor and down
compressed people are made to watch the video on the media that shows extreme ruin of the
district 13 caused during the rebellion. That video is made to instill fear and terror into people
stating how the Capitol is ever so caring and good to forgive their uprising and revolution. This
ridicule of words further means how media plays in the hands of the government.
Several cases are noted where the media shows the games in the viewpoint that the
President Snow wants people to see. All the professionals playing nice on television sets specify
an program of praising the Capitol government and expressing false support for the people of
district. Teenage children being murdered are shown openly in the television sets showing
insensitivity of the people of Capitol to the violence that their state is committing on the other
districts.
This situation displayed is not different and far from reality. Looking at the present state

of the world, people are seen killing each other in the hands of cruel leaders. Media plays a
important role in causing fear among the masses by showing obvious visuals of violence being
done on the people around the world. Many times false news and information is expressed on the
television sets thus controlling the minds of people to the governments own plan. Mind control
is also evident in reality. Just as the people of the Capitol show coldness and insensitivity to the
poor people of the districts, the people in todays world are also being made shocked by the
media by showing them fantasies about fashion and beauty and admiring the celebrities. People
of the Capitol are also showed as having a high feeling towards fashion and clothing and
admiring the celebrities thus making them like the riches and being emotionless towards the
people of the districts.
It is also seen in reality that the government of the United States takes almost no actions
on the extermination of poverty despite the high claims. The rich people are gaining unnecessary
wealth day by day and the poor are becoming poorer alongside. This financial judgment is
increasing just as shown in The Hunger Games where the people of Capitol have so much to eat
whereas the people in districts are starving and dying from hunger. In the real scenario, the under
developed countries in the world are being spied by the US government for the purpose of
controlling the poor and under developed nations. The poor countries are filled with the military
bases of the US army in the efforts to control them just as represented in the Hunger Games.
This social scenario is more exaggerated in reality than shown in the novel. Rosamund (2014)
makes a comparison between the Hunger Games and the state of London and tells us that the
working people are getting poorer whereas the rich people are getting richer. London just like the
Capitol is seeing continuous success and is successful whereas the neighboring areas are
experiencing down fall.
Population of the world is also being watched on by the US government in the attempts to
decrease the chances of a strong revolution. People are being discouraged to have children by the
social and the mass media, causing them to treat in the fantasies and thus being self-centered.
The health insurance policies and the FDA each year issue policies that control the food we eat
and the type of medical treatment we get at the doctors. The treatments and medical processes
are strictly checked according to the standards issued by the government and a doctor has to
follow those ways issued by the government instead of forming his own judgement.
The Hunger Games shows the fate of the people where such a controlling oppressive
government exists. Despite all the mind control and the dependable strategies employed by the
evil government, rebellion is predictable in such extreme conditions of starvation and pain.
Controlling humans is never possible forever as humans are born free and enslaving them no
matter how high a technology is employed is never possible. This message is described in The
Hunger
Games where the strength of one girl gives all districts a streak of hope in order to start a rebel. It
is not long before the people start the uprising and the controlling government is over thrown.

Works Cited
Urwin, Rosamund. Welcome to the Capitol: Why there's a Significant Parallel between
The Hunger Games and Life in London, Evening Standard. 7.2 (2014): 20.
Smith, Michael. "Review: 'The Hunger Games", McClatchy - Tribune Business News, (2012).
Wood, Cedric. "MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Hunger Games'." The Monitor, (2012).