Throughout Catching Fire and the rest of The Hunger Games Trilogy, I found myself fuming with hatred for the people of the Capitol, especially President Snow. The Capitol basically rules over all twelve districts. I have so much hatred for the capitol for a few reasons. Most obviously, I despise them because they organize the Hunger Games where 23 teenagers are sent into the games to die. They basically sacrifice these teenagers for their own entertainment, which is disgusting. Also, the Capitol lives a lavish lifestyle with all of the food, fashion and entertainment they could ever want. They dye their skin for the sake of fashion with expensive chemicals, while the citizens of the districts die frequently because they can't afford medicine to restore their lives. People in the districts are dying of starvation, while the people of the Capitol drink formulas to make the regurgitate food so that they can eat more because the food in the Capitol tastes so good. People in the Capitol are filthy rich for doing practically nothing, while citizens of the districts work like slaves for long hours with minimal pay to make products for the people in the Capitol. People in the Capitol have hovercrafts to transport themselves wherever they please, while the citizens in the districts must walk if they wish to go anywhere because they don’t even have simple cars to get around.Is This Brutality Justifiable? (PART 2)
The contrasting lifestyles between the people of the Capitol and the people of the districts makes my stomach uneasy and my heart filled with disgust for the Capitol's citizens. However, it seems almost hypocritical to judge them so harshly for their actions because they're only doing what society has told them is right. Their actions appear despicable to us, but to them, it's just the normal way of life. Often times, grandparents or elderly people will scold younger people for things that just seem normal to younger people, but it disgust elderly people. I'm sure that if people that lives hundreds of years ago observed our generation's behaviour, they would be astonished by our horrible habits like disregarding the environment, making role models out of superficial actors and performers and killing babies before they're even out of the womb. Although it seems like the people of the Capitol behave in an inexcusable manner, I am not one to judge them because I am just as guilty as they are. They just mindlessly follow the actions of their parents and society just like I mindlessly follow the actions of my parents and society. The only difference between the people of the Capitol and myself is that the society in the Capitol has degraded much more (by time) than the society that I live in. Who's to say that I wouldn't do the same things as the people in the Capitol, if I lived in their society. 
Your insight is incredible. The way people treat others and use up valuable resources is awful sometimes. And as I read this, the first thing that comes to mind is how similar things happen even in our own society, it doesn’t happen within cities, but when I think about North America, and the resources we have and that we waste, and then look at countries across the world that have nothing, it is heartbreaking. Our society could be looked upon as the capitol, we just waste resources, food, money, water, whatever it is, because we are wealthy, while others across the world starve, or die of dehydration.
ReplyDeleteAnd nowadays, as many people in the world die of overeating related issues (ie. diabetes) as from undereating/starvation. There is enough food for all of us. People in developed countries are spending loads of money trying to lose weight, while people in poor nations are just trying to gain some. We buy so many clothes, new technology, etc, to try and keep up with current fashions, while people across the globe may have only one set of clothes, and no electricity. Like Kate pointed out, how we live in North America is disgusting when you look at it from a global perspective. And even though we live this way because this is how we are taught to live, things can change. Society is made of people, us. If we change, so will our society. Like Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world".
ReplyDeletewow, i never thought of it this way , but katie is totally right. The Capitol is like a sumbol of North America. While reading the books, i would get so angry at the citizens of the Capitol for being so useless and using the other districts for their resources and their sick pleasure, while our society today is not much different. We use third world counties like China, and others in asia and africa for their labour, while the people in these countries are suffering from hunger,child labour and lack of health care, and we are content to do nothing about it. It seems like our whole world system is just another version of the Hunger Games. Why is this still happening today?
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