I’m not sure how many of you have actually watched the movies or just seen the previews but I assure they are really amazing movies. I promise I’m not just saying that because Jennifer Lawrence and I are from the same city. Although, she’s the reason why the movie is as amazing as it is.
Briefly, the first movie is about an older sister Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take her little sister’s place in what their nation calls “The Hunger Games“. A televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete. Katniss and her district partner Peeta change the game by deciding to die together, rather than kill the other as the game is suppose to be won.
In the second movie Catching Fire, they are made to portray themselves as a couple when they have to participate in the “Quarter Quell” (an event that occurs every 25th year of the Games and allows the Capitol to introduce a twist). Which the Capitol decides to bring all the previous victors to the arena to compete against each other. The victors come together and fuel the district’s uprisings by destroying the forcefield. In the chaos Peeta and Katniss are separated, Katniss with the rebels from the bombed District 13 and Peeta captured by the capital. Ending with Katniss finding out that her district has now been bombed as well.
In the last movie Mockingjay Part 1, Katniss is enlisted as the Mockingjay (which is her trademark and the symbol of the uprising). She is voice of the people and the leader of the revolution. She sees and hears the story about how the Capitol destroyed her District. As well as, witness how far the Capitol is willing to go in order to disband the rebels. She realizes that the Capitol has brainwashed Peeta through torture and has turned him against her.
I bet now you’re wondering “what’s the forewarning?” Well, there are Capitol enlisted parole officers that are called “Peacekeepers”. They are police-like officers that enforce the Capitol’s will onto the citizens. They kill those that are a threat to the Capitol and engaged in the uprising. They are the ones that bomb the districts that are going against the grain.
To the “Peacekeepers” are much like the “National Guards” that are called in when citizen being to riot. Gun toting officers that somehow forget that they are citizens when they aren’t armed and are out of uniform. Now, it’s no secret that our Capital is, in many ways, just as corrupt as this fictional Capitol. Agreed, they don’t force us into “Hunger Games” in which we have to kill each other in the confinement of an arena. But they definitely pin us against each within our neighborhoods.
How you ask? While let’s start with racism/segregation between races instead of districts. Then there’s the discrimination within the classes. The rich are well above middle class and middle class is only a notch above the lower class.
The poor are pretty much non existent, much like District 13.
Just like the rebels of the Hunger Games uprising, we as citizens are the majority. Yet, we are still stuck where the presidents and corrupt politicians have left us to fend for ourselves or depend on their assistance or accept their injustice and oppression. I wonder, almost everyday, when will people wake up to all the signs around us. And everytime, I get the feeling that once people start paying attention and take their blinders off, it will be to late. But it doesn’t haven’t to be that way.
No, I’m not trying to be Katniss. I’m well aware that the story is fiction but I also know I’m not the only one who reads between the lines. I also know that I’m not the only one who sees that things are only getting more out of hand. Am I suggesting an uprising? Not yet, but I am suggesting that you take your blinders off and realize how much control the government has over your life.
ee, the “American Dream” is much harder to achieve and see with clarity from my perspective. It would be very much like The Great Gatsby. I’ve already began to reinvent myself.
Be The Change! 