In “The Hunger Games”, inequality occurs in all levels,

whether it is the Capitol, among the 12 districts, and all

inhabitants of Panem. Main character of the novel, Katniss
Everdeen sometimes points out the issue in her world, and
some we as reader have to explore during our journey of
reading. The inequality breeds the main conflicts in the book,
and also to convey the ultimate message from Suzanne Collins.

This essay will discuss from three points, analyzing on the

way which Collins has illustrated inequality for effect. The
tesserae system, the mutual incomprehension between the rich
and poor, finally the wealth gap.

Firstly, the way that tributes are selected to be in the

Games is an indicator of inequality. For example, “Gale knows
his anger at Madge is misdirected… the tesserae are just
another tool to cause misery in our district. A way to plant
hatred between the starving workers … and those who can
generally count on supper” Suggesting that, even though the
lottery is random in theory, the tesserae system makes the
poor more vulnerable. In exchange for extra rations of food and
oil , ‘tesserae’—children can enter their names into the reaping
additional times. The reader would feel the helplessness of the
people from Seam, putting them into a dilemma. Furthermore,
highlighting that the tesserae is used by the government to
maintain its power. Sowing discord between the poor and the
relatively rich, ensuring that there are no alliances against their
authority. Leading to my second point, perhaps the inequality is
enlarged when Katniss interacts with people from the Capitol.
 Katniss experiences inequality when she met Effie Trinket.
The insipid manager of the Hunger Games ceremonies. Effie is
disturbingly not familiar of the realities of the districts. An
evidence to my point is “At least you have decent manners…the
pair last year ate everything with their hands like a pair of
savages… The pair last year were two kids from the Seam who’d
never… had enough to eat.” This quote infers the narrow-
minded of Effie Trinket as well as reflecting on all wealthy
people, complaining about the messy eaters. However, perhaps
only Katniss knows the reality, that they were probably starving
to death, and didn’t cared about table manners. The passage
represents the social inequalities of Panem. The wealthy
literally cannot understand how the poor live, therefore, never
paid attention to the issue. Linking back to the question, the
author here possibly trying to insinuate the economic condition
of US after ‘The Great Recession”.

Lastly, inequality is seen when Katniss points out the lack

of sponsors that District 12 has, is all due to the enormous
wealth gap between the Capitol and District 12 and a long time
of stereotype on the people of District 12 . “I realized that I
detest Haymitch … It isn’t just that we’ve been underfed and
lack of training … we rarely get sponsors and he’s a big part of
the reason why” Haymitch mentioned in the quotation, is a
former Hunger Games victor, now his job is to train the future
contestants in his district. Often he is portrayed as alcoholic and
lazy, not bothered to speak. Noticing, that because the rich
people (sponsors) dislike Haymitch, they also don’t like the
people which are trained by him.
The observation of Katniss holds up the vast gap between poor
districts like 12 and rich districts like 2. Regardless of your
achievements, victors from District 12 tends to be unlikable.
The unglamourous of district 12’s victors leads to hardly any
sponsorships.