The Hunger Games Totalitarian Government

One of the Novels we have read this semester is the first book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, The Hunger Games. In the book the main character Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12, lives in a world in which every year a male and a female tribute from each of the 12 Districts are selected to fight to the death in what is called the Hunger Games, created by the Capitol of Panem. Katniss ends up volunteering for her younger sister prim after she had been selected for the games.

Katniss must fight for survival in the arena to make it home to her family after she had promised her sister that she would do her best to make it out alive. The world in which the people of this book live in is ruled by a totalitarian government that uses isolation, the inability to have free speech, and even the Hunger Games itself as a means of enforcing and retaining their power over society.

Essay Example on Totalitarianism In The Hunger Games

The use of isolation is one way that the government makes it so the people are not able to escape from their rule. A fence borders the outside of each of the districts which no one is ever allowed to leave except under certain circumstances .An example of isolation is when Katniss says “After the war, the Capitol destroyed all the nests surrounding the city, but the ones near the districts were left untouched. Another reminder of our weakness, I suppose, just like the Hunger Games.

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Another reason to keep inside the fence of District 12” (Collins 3). This shows that by placing the mutant tracker jackers around the Districts the people were forced to stay in their regions, thus proving to be a form of government control.

The ability to speak freely can be a very powerful thing, but in Panem’s society it is very dangerous. Free speech is not allowed in Panem and one who speaks freely will most likely receive a severe punishment or death. Katniss foreshadows this when saying “When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about Di…