The Role of the Hunger Games

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The Role of the Hunger Games By Duane Collins In order to understand the role of the Hunger Games, one must look at how the Hunger Games began. At the time of the first book in this series, there had been 73 previous Hunger Games “events.” The Hunger Games was an annual event orchestrated by the Capitol to remind each of the 12 Districts of the past rebellion that had taken place many years prior, referred to as the “Dark Days” in the series. As an ongoing punishment for the rebellion, the Capitol required each District to provide one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. These two were selected by lottery and were referred to as tributes. The tributes had to fight to the death in an outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol, until only one of them remained. The Hunger Games’ role in Panem was part of a bigger initiative conducted by the Capitol. The Capitol had surveillance in all of the Districts, controlled the media in order to deliver their own message, kept technology out of the hands of most in the Districts, used an overwhelming military presence in nearly all the Districts, and, of course, masterminded the Hunger Games every year. The Capitol used these tactics and others in order “win the hearts and minds” of the citizens throughout Panem. The Hunger Games was a very big part of the strategy that the Capitol used to maintain control, but was also where it used its technology and the media to demonstrate its power. The Hunger Games were held in an outdoor arena, changing every year, where the Capitol put all of its best technology to use- injected tracking devices, swarms of tracker jackers, genetically altered wolves, monkey mutations, poisonous fog, etc.. There are hidden cameras everywhere and they were utilized to show everything going on in the arena, including the devastating effects of many of the terrible
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