In the trilogy, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins uses the Games, the main characters and the utopian society to explain how humans strive for perfection and what they are willing to compromise in order to achieve this.

The Hunger Games is set in the dystopian future in a nation called Panem run by an authoritarian-totalitarian dictator called President Snow. He is given all power and the people of the Capitol live a life of luxury while the citizens of the districts are ravaged by starvation and poverty.

In the past districts rebelled against the Capitol resulting in death, destruction and the founding of the Hunger Games, an annual event run by the government in which 24 teenagers and children are sent to an arena to fight to the death for the entertainment of those living in the Capitol to establish the Capitol’s power and dominance over the people.

There are many terrifying connections between the Hunger Games and today’s society.

One of them makes us look like the people of the Capitol. Despite this being a political film about power and control and how we feed of violence, the most discussed topic after the movies came out, the most pressing question, was whether you are team Peter or team Gale. The plot is about how the government are making people fight to the death and instead of being disgusted by the horror, are engrossed in the relationship between Katniss and Peeta. The whole point is that we are supposed to see how horrible this is, how people could look past the blood of literal CHILDREN and just focus on the “love story” between Katniss and Peter, and yet, instead of noticing it, we are falling into the same trap of thinking which guy is “hotter” is more important than the politics, the blood the revolution.

Another connection is that the people in the Capitol have everything while those in the districts are dying of easily preventable causes. It may not be as extreme as in the Hunger Games but that doesn’t make it any less important. Those in the Capitol have so much food that they gorge themselves til they vomit while those in the districts literally STARVE to death. The problem is not with how much food there is. There is enough food for everyone. The problem is with the greedy wanting everything, to the point it hurts them, while ignoring those less fortunate. 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted every year and 40% of grain, 70% of corn and 95% of oats, 75% of soy is fed to livestock. we literally pay someone to kill something that filters our calories for us instead of feeding the poor. There is enough crops to feed everyone on earth and yet, like the Capitol, we bury our heads in the sand and pretend nothing bad is happening.