Contrasting: Hunger Games vs. United States

I found it very interesting today in class when we began to compare the Hunger Games to the United States/modern society. I listened to many striking similarities (that I agree with), however I got the urge to play devil's advocate, just for fun. Rather than using the whole roll of toilet paper myself (...haha) I figured I could write about some of my ideas in my blog.


1. Panem has a much different system of government then the United States. They have one President, who is more like a dictator. There are no checks & balances in their government like there is in ours. President Snow controls his government by force, killing them if they steal, trespass, or leave their district. However, in the United States we are punished for "little" things like stealing, but people are not killed by the government for it. Also, we are encouraged to travel to other parts of the United States to boost their tourism revenue and to educate ourselves.


2. In Panem, the schools are very different from ours. They mostly learn about the history of Panem and how the capital took over; this instills fear in the children. However, when learning about Panem the children don't learn about the other districts, and the laws that make the children go to school are very loose, as many do not go to school at all. In the United States children are encouraged to learn and be smart. We learn multiple subjects, and reading is very encouraged. Children in our schools also learn about other countries and the world around them, rather than just their state or only the United States.




3. Another difference is Panem's media. In Panem, the media is extremely controlled by the government. They glorify the Hunger Games and children dying, even though much of the population is disgusted, angry, and fearful of these acts. This is very different from the United States in that we have free speech. This allows our media to say whatever they want for the most part. Also, it is never mandatory to watch something on television, like in the Hunger Games.


I'm sure that for each of these differences there are two or three similarities, and that is fine. I just felt like writing about some of the differences that I thought of during our discussion today.