I am at a loss on what to write, where to start, what to focus on. Right now I only want to focus on one thing, myself. Ever since I started reading The Hunger Games, the cavity inside my chest has ached. I have grown sad, and I am not entirely sure why. I know it has to do with the barbaric actions in this book, the drawing of a “lottery” in order to watch CHILDREN fight to the death for lives. I feel empty as I try and reflect on the novel. And the main thing is I don’t want to talk about it. I want to build up my own wall and I want to disconnect. Katniss, she struck a nerve in me. Her distrust in people, her not so secret need to feel secure and be loved and protected again. Her distaste for the happenings going on. Collins did a good job in writing this novel, or at least to me she did. I feel for the characters raised for the slaughter, the injustice of this practice. I feel disgust and in this feeling I come to the realization of things in my life in my society that parallel this world. The movies we watch, the television, the sports like boxing and fighting. I see these things we do and I think we are no better than the Careers, that we play these games and watch them not really seeing what it is like to be sitting in District 12 or 11 or any of the poor Districts. Not being the person struggling for survival in a game that their chance is so slim the thought of it deters the player. And yet we pay money to see the gore and glory, the fights and the competition. We promote the continual downfall of our society. And I feel helpless to stop it. I know we aren’t at a point where we are outright killing eachother for a source of entertainment, or at least not the majority of us. But when will tire of these meaningless competitions and games, the computer generated gore? When will we move on to the real version? When will are entertainment turn dangerous? Our horror movies turn live? And because we enjoy these things, we enjoy the suspense and the horror as long as we aren’t being hurt we won’t stop it. We will let our world deteriorate into “the hunger games” into “the most dangerous game” into “the lottery”. And will it be too late. Will we be able to recover once we discover what has happened? I don’t want to think about this. I want to curl up into my ignorance is bliss. I want to pretend that not in a million years anything like this could happen. But the sad thing is I’m scared that what I have been talking about is truth. That we fall, and with it our humanity will be stripped from us. We will be no better than the fallen tributes turned into ravaging mutated dogs.
BLEH!
So well put! I loved reading this book, and I myself felt a connection with Katniss. She's different and that in itself makes her a rebel from the very beginning. This book paints a vivid future waiting for America if we don't get our acts together. But can we? To me, this seems like human nature. Are we headed for the same oppressive future that Katniss is dealing with?
ReplyDeleteI love this, you have a great style of writing and I agree with what you put here. I really liked what you said about how we promote the continual downfall of our society. Also, I think that what you said about us for the most part only wanting to see the fights happen and not being the one struggling is pretty accurate. Also, I liked the ending you have about our future.
ReplyDeleteNice post.
Wow, You went on a nice little rant there. I like how you considered the author's actions of why the characters were how they were. I agree that there was a lot of thought put into the characters, trying to make you feel for them. It didn't work on me, but I feel like the was a lot of feeling that the author tried to evoke, and I'm glad you were able to pick up on that. The ending of your blog creeps me out a bit. I don't want the society to end or live like the dead tributes or mutated dogs. Although, i gotta say the mutated dogs, as cool as they were, confused me and seemed unnecessary. I didn't know if they were clones or what, but if the bodies of the dead go back, i would think their people would want the kids back how they sent them off.
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